£ 


IVfi 


^5.  — 


^     - 


NO 

OS 


<fJMNVS01^ 


M 


& 


^ 


ivaainv> 


^tUBRAftYa* 


4,0FCAllF0fy 


#Aav}iaiiY< 


M 


<Piu: 


%HAJNIHK* 


iM-wvms//, 


Sl2 


*VtfllBRARY/fc 


=18 


**UIBR/ 


CC 


^ 


^H» 


"^SJHAlNft-JVLV* 


I3n. 


^•UBRARYQc.       ^ 


%0JHVDJO^       %0JI1V3J0^ 


r\r  r  i  nr/in  . 


/\r  rinrrtr*. 


^urniin/cnr.v 


inemrrtr* 


Teacher  Training  Series 

EDITED    BY 

W.  W.  CHARTERS 

Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Education,  University  of  Missouri 


THE    SCIENCE    OF 
HUMAN   NATURE 

A  PSYCHOLOGY  FOR  BEGINNERS 

BY 

WILLIAM  HENRY  PYLE 

PROFESSOR   OF    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHOLOGY 
UNIVERSITY    OF    MISSOURI 


SILVER,  BURDETT  &  COMPANY 
BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 

WAH 


COPYBIGHT,    1917, 

By  SILVER,   BURDETT  &  COMPANY. 


\os\ 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

This  book  is  written  for  young  students  in  high 
schools  and  normal  schools.  No  knowledge  can  be 
of  more  use  to  a  young  person  than  a  knowledge  of 
himself ;  no  study  can  be  more  valuable  to  him  than 
a  study  of  himself.  A  study  of  the  laws  of  human 
behavior,  —  that  is  the  purpose  of  this  book. 

What  is  human  nature  like?  Why  do  we  act  as 
we  do  ?  How  can  we  make  ourselves  different  ?  How 
can  we  make  others  different?  How  can  we  make 
ourselves  more  efficient?  How  can  we  make  our 
lives  more  worth  while?  This  book  is  a  manual  in- 
tended to  help  young  people  to  obtain  such  knowledge 
of  human  nature  as  will  enable  them  to  answer  these 
questions. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  write  a  complete  text  on 
psychology.  There  are  already  many  such  books, 
and  good  ones  too.  I  have  selected  for  treatment 
only  such  topics  as  young  students  can  study  with 
interest  and  profit.  I  have  tried  to  keep  in  mind  all 
the  time  the  practical  worth  of  the  matters  discussed, 
and  the  ability  and  experience  of  the  intended  readers. 

TO  THE  TEACHER 

This  book  can  be  only  a  guide  to  you.  You  are  to 
help  your  students  study  human  nature.  You  must, 
to  some  extent,  be  a  psychologist  yourself  before  you 

iii 


iv  Author's  Preface 

can  teach  psychology.  You  must  yourself  be  a  close 
and  scientific  student  of  human  nature.  Develop 
in  the  students  the  spirit  of  inquiry  and  investigation. 
Teach  them  to  look  to  their  own  minds  and  their 
neighbor's  actions  for  verification  of  the  statements 
of  the  text.  Let  the  students  solve  by  observation 
and  experiment  the  questions  and  problems  raised  in 
the  text  and  the  exercises.  The  exercises  should  prove 
to  be  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  book.  The  first 
two  chapters  are  the  most  difficult  but  ought  to  be  read 
before  the  rest  of  the  book  is  studied.  If  you  think 
best,  merely  read  these  two  chapters  with  the  pupils, 
and  after  the  book  is  finished  come  back  to  them  for 
careful  study. 

In  the  references,  I  have  given  parallel  readings,  for 
the  most  part  to  Titchener,  Pillsbury,  and  Munster- 
berg.  I  have  purposely  limited  the  references,  partly 
because  a  library  will  not  be  available  to  many  who 
may  use  the  book,  and  partly  because  the  young 
student  is  likely  to  be  confused  by  much  reading  from 
different  sources  before  he  has  worked  out  some  sort 
of  system  and  a  point  of  view  of  his  own.  Only  the 
most  capable  members  of  a  high  school  class  will  be 
able  to  profit  much  from  the  references  given. 

TO   THE  STUDENT 

You  are  beginning  the  study  of  human  nature.  You 
can  not  study  human  nature  from  a  book,  you  must 
study  yourself  and  your  neighbors.  This  book  may 
help  you  to  know  what  to  look  for  and  to  understand 
what  you  find,  but  it  can  do  little  more  than  this. 
It  is  true,  this  text  gives  you  many  facts  learned  by 
psychologists,  but  you  must  verify  the  statements, 


Authors  Preface  v 

or  at  least  see  their  significance  to  you,  or  they  will  be 
of  no  worth  to  you.  However,  the  facts  considered 
here,  properly  understood  and  assimilated,  ought  to 
prove  of  great  value  to  you.  But  perhaps  of  greater 
value  will  be  the  psychological  frame  of  mind  or  atti- 
tude which  you  should  acquire.  The  psychological 
attitude  is  that  of  seeking  to  find  and  understand  the 
causes  of  human  action,  and  the  causes,  consequences, 
and  significance  of  the  processes  of  the  human  mind. 
If  your  first  course  in  psychology  teaches  you  to  look 
for  these  things,  gives  you  some  skill  in  finding  them 
and  in  using  the  knowledge  after  you  have  it,  your 
study  should  be  quite  worth  while. 

W.  H.  PYLE. 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

There  are  at  least  two  possible  approaches  to  the 
study  of  psychology  by  teacher-training  students  in 
high  schools  and  by  beginning  students  in  normal 
schools. 

One  of  these  is  through  methods  of  teaching  and 
subject  matter.  The  other  aims  to  give  the  simple, 
concrete  facts  of  psychology  as  the  science  of  the  mind. 
The  former  presupposes  a  close  relationship  between 
psychology  and  methods  of  teaching  and  assumes  that 
psychology  is  studied  chiefly  as  an  aid  to  teaching. 
The  latter  is  less  complicated.  The  plan  contemplates 
the  teaching  of  the  simple  fundamentals  at  first  and 
applying  them  incidentally  as  the  occasion  demands. 
This  latter  point  of  view  is  in  the  main  the  point  of 
view  taken  in  the  text. 

The  author  has  taught  the  material  of  the  text  to 
high  school  students  to  the  end  that  he  might  present 
the  fundamental  facts  of  psychology  in  simple  form. 

w.  w.  c. 


VI 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter        I.  Introduction 1 

Chapter      II.  Development  of  the  Race  and  of  the 

Individual 18 

Chapter     III.   Mind  and  Body 34 

Chapter     IV.  Inherited  Tendencies      ....  50 

Chapter      V.   Feeling  and  Attention   ....  73 

Chapter     VI.   Habit 87 

Chapter  VII.  Memory 124 

Chapter  VIII.  Thinking 152 

Chapter    IX.  Individual  Differences  ....  176 

Chapter      X.  Applied  Psychology         .        .        .        .210 

Glossary 223 

Index 227 


YU 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  HUMAN 
NATURE 


CHAPTER   I 
INTRODUCTION 

Science.  Before  attempting  to  define  psychology, 
it  will  be  helpful  to  make  some  inquiry  into  the  nature 
of  science  in  general.  Science  is  knowledge;  it  is 
what  we  know.  But  mere  knowledge  is  not  science. 
For  a  bit  of  knowledge  to  become  a  part  of  science,  its 
relation  to  other  bits  of  knowledge  must  be  found.  In 
botany,  for  example,  bits  of  knowledge  about  plants 
do  not  make  a  science  of  botany.  To  have  a  science  of 
botany,  we  must  not  only  know  about  leaves,  roots, 
flowers,  seeds,  etc.,  but  we  must  know  the  relations  of 
these  parts  and  of  all  the  parts  of  a  plant  to  one  an- 
other. In  other  words,  in  science,  we  must  not  only 
know,  we  must  not  only  have  knowledge,  but  we  must 
know  the  significance  of  the  knowledge,  must  know  its 
meaning.  This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  we 
must  have  knowledge  and  know  its  relation  to  other 
knowledge. 

A  scientist  is  one  who  has  learned  to  organize  his 
knowledge.  The  main  difference  between  a  scientist 
and  one  who  is  not  a  scientist  is  that  the  scientist  sees 
the  significance  of  facts,  while  the  non-scientific  man 

I 


2  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

sees  facts  as  more  or  less  unrelated  things.  As  one 
comes  to  hunt  for  causes  and  inquire  into  the  signifi- 
cance of  things,  one  becomes  a  scientist.  A  thing  or 
an  event  always  points  beyond  itself  to  something 
else.  This  something  else  is  what  goes  before  it  or 
comes  after  it,  —  is  its  cause  or  its  effect.  This  causal 
relationship  that  exists  between  events  enables  a  sci- 
entist to  prophesy.  By  carefully  determining  what 
always  precedes  a  certain  event,  a  certain  type  of 
happening,  a  scientist  is  able  to  predict  the  event. 
All  that  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  predict  an  event 
is  to  have  a  clear  knowledge  of  its  true  causes. 
Whenever,  beyond  any  doubt,  these  causes  are  found 
to  be  present,  the  scientist  knows  the  event  will  fol- 
low. Of  course,  all  that  he  really  knows  is  that 
such  results  have  always  followed  similar  causes  in  the 
past.  But  he  has  come  to  have  faith  in  the  uniformity 
and  regularity  of  nature.  The  chemist  does  not  find 
sulphur,  or  oxygen,  or  any  other  element  acting  one 
way  one  day  under  a  certain  set  of  conditions,  and 
acting  another  way  the  next  day  under  exactly  the 
same  conditions.  Nor  does  the  physicist  find  the  laws 
of  mechanics  holding  good  one  day  and  not  the  next. 

The  scientist,  therefore,  in  his  thinking  brings  order 
out  of  chaos  in  the  world.  If  we  do  not  know  the 
causes  and  relations  of  things  and  events,  the  world 
seems  a  very  mixed-up,  chaotic  place,  where  anything 
and  everything  is  happening.  But  as  we  come  to 
know  causes  and  relations,  the  world  turns  out  to  be  a 
very  orderly  and  systematic  place.  It  is  a  lawful 
world;  it  is  not  a  world  of  chance.  Everything  is 
related  to  everything  else. 

Now,  the  non-scientific  mind  sees  things  as  more  or 
less  unrelated.    The  far-reaching  causal  relations  are 


Introduction 


only  imperfectly  seen  by  it,  while  the  scientific  mind 
not  only  sees  things,  but  inquires  into  their  causes  and 
effects  or  consequences.  The  non-scientific  man,  walk- 
ing over  the  top  of  a  mountain  and  noticing  a  stone 
there,  is  likely  to  see  in  it  only  a  stone  and  think  noth- 
ing of  how  it  came  to  be  there ;  but  the  scientific  man 
sees  quite  an  interesting  bit  of  history  in  the  stone. 
He  reads  in  the  stone  that  millions  of  years  ago  the 
place  where  the  rock  now  lies  was  under  the  sea. 
Many  marine  animals  left  their  remains  in  the  mud 
underneath  the  sea.  The  mud  was  afterward  con- 
verted into  rock.  Later,  the  shrinking  and  warping 
earth-crust  lifted  the  rock  far  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  and  it  may  now  be  found  at  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tain. The  one  bit  of  rock  tells  its  story  to  one  who 
inquires  into  its  causes.  The  scientific  man,  then, 
sees  more  significance,  more  meaning,  in  things  and 
events  than  does  the  non-scientific  man. 

Each  science  has  its  own  particular  field.  Zoology 
undertakes  to  answer  every  reasonable  question  about 
animals ;  botany,  about  plants ;  physics,  about  motion 
and  forces;  chemistry,  about  the  composition  of 
matter;  astronomy,  about  the  heavenly  bodies,  etc. 
The  world  has  many  aspects.  Each  science  under- 
takes to  describe  and  explain  some  particular  aspect. 
To  understand  all  the  aspects  of  the  world,  we  must 
study  all  the  sciences. 

A  Scientific  Law.  By  law  a  scientist  has  reference 
to  uniformities  which  he  notices  in  things  and  events. 
He  does  not  mean  that  necessities  are  imposed  upon 
things  as  civil  law  is  imposed  upon  man.  He  means 
only  that  in  certain  well-defined  situations  certain 
events  always  take  place,  according  to  all  previous 
observations.     The   Law  of   Falling   Bodies  may  be 


4  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

cited  as  an  example.  By  this  law,  the  physicist  means 
that  in  observing  falling  bodies  in  the  past,  he  has 
noticed  that  they  fall  about  sixteen  feet  in  the  first 
second  and  acquire  in  this  time  a  velocity  of  thirty- 
two  feet.  He  has  noted  that,  taking  into  account  the 
specific  gravity  of  the  object  and  the  resistance  of  the 
air,  this  way  of  falling  holds  true  of  all  objects  at  about 
the  level  of  the  sea. 

The  more  we  carefully  study  the  events  of  the  world, 
the  more  strongly  we  come  to  feel  that  definite  causes, 
under  the  same  circumstances,  always  produce  pre- 
cisely the  same  result.  The  scientist  has  faith  that 
events  will  continue  to  happen  during  all  the  future 
in  the  same  order  of  cause  and  effect  in  which  they  have 
been  happening  during  all  the  past. 

The  astronomer,  knowing  the  relations  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  solar  system  —  the  sun  and  planets  —  can 
successfully  predict  the  occurrence  of  lunar  and  solar 
eclipses.  In  other  fields,  too,  the  scientist  can  predict 
with  as  much  certainty  as  does  the  astronomer,  pro- 
vided his  knowledge  of  the  factors  concerned  is  as 
complete  as  is  the  knowledge  which  the  astronomer 
has  of  the  solar  system.  Even  in  the  case  of  human 
beings,  uncertain  as  their  actions  seem  to  be,  we  can 
predict  their  actions  when  our  knowledge  of  the  fac- 
tors is  sufficiently  complete.  In  a  great  many  in- 
stances we  do  make  such  predictions.  For  example,  if 
we  call  a  person  by  name,  we  expect  him  to  turn,  or 
make  some  other  movement  in  response.  Our  usual 
inability  to  make  such  predictions  in  the  case  of  human 
beings  is  not  because  human  beings  are  not  subject  to 
the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  it  is  not  that  their  acts  are 
due  to  chance,  but  that  the  factors  involved  are  usually 
many,  and  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  find  out  all  of  them. 


Introduction 


The  Science  of  Psychology.  Now,  let  us  ask,  what 
is  the  science  of  psychology?  What  kind  of  problems 
does  it  try  to  solve?  What  aspect  of  the  world  has 
it  taken  for  its  field  of  investigation? 

We  have  said  that  each  science  undertakes  to  describe 
some  particular  aspect  of  the  world.  Human  psychol- 
ogy is  the  science  of  human  nature.  But  human  nature 
has  many  aspects.  To  some  extent,  our  bodies  are  the 
subject  matter  for  physiology,  anatomy,  zoology,  phys- 
ics, and  chemistry.  Our  bodies  may  be  studied  in 
the  same  way  that  a  rock  or  a  table  might  be  studied. 
But  a  human  being  presents  certain  problems  that  a 
rock  or  table  does  not  present.  If  we  consider  the 
differences  between  a  human  being  and  a  table,  we 
shall  see  at  once  the  special  field  of  psychology.  If  we 
stick  a  pin  into  a  leg  of  the  table,  we  get  no  response. 
If  we  stick  a  pin  into  a  leg  of  a  man,  we  get  a  charac- 
teristic response.  The  man  moves,  he  cries  out. 
This  shows  two  very  great  differences  between  a  man 
and  a  table.  The  man  is  sensitive  and  has  the  power 
of  action,  the  power  of  moving  himself.  The  table  is 
not  sensitive,  nor  can  it  move  itself.  If  the  pin  is 
thrust  into  one's  own  leg,  one  has  pain.  Human 
beings,  then,  are  sensitive,  conscious,  acting  beings. 
And  the  study  of  sensitivity,  action,  and  consciousness 
is  the  field  of  psychology.  These  three  characteristics 
are  not  peculiar  to  man.  Many,  perhaps  all,  animals 
possess  them.  There  is,  therefore,  an  animal  psy- 
chology as  well  as  human  psychology. 

A  study  of  the  human  body  shows  us  that  the  body- 
surface  and  many  parts  within  the  body  are  filled 
with  sensitive  nerve-ends.  These  sensitive  nerve- 
ends  are  the  sense  organs,  and  on  them  the  substances 
and  forces  of  the  world  are  constantly  acting.     In  the 


6  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

sense  organs,  the  nerve-ends  are  so  modified  or  changed 
as  to  be  affected  by  some  particular  kind  of  force  or 
substance.  Vibrations  of  ether  affect  the  eye.  Vibra- 
tions of  air  affect  the  ear.  Liquids  and  solutions  affect 
the  sense  of  taste.  Certain  substances  affect  the  sense 
of  smell.  Certain  organs  in  the  skin  are  affected  by 
low  temperatures;  others,  by  high  temperatures; 
others,  by  mechanical  pressure.  Similarly,  each  sense 
organ  in  the  body  is  affected  by  a  definite  kind  of  force 
or  substance. 

This  affecting  of  a  sense  organ  is  known  technically 
as  stimulation,  and  that  which  affects  the  organ  is 
known  as  the  stimulus. 

Two  important  consequences  ordinarily  follow  the 
stimulation  of  a  sense  organ.  One  of  these  is  move- 
ment. The  purpose  of  stimulation  is  to  bring  about 
movement.  To  be  alive  is  to  respond  to  stimulation. 
When  one  ceases  to  respond  to  stimulation,  he  is  dead. 
If  we  are  to  continue  alive,  we  must  constantly  adjust 
ourselves  to  the  forces  of  the  world  in  which  we  live. 
Generally  speaking,  we  may  say  that  every  nerve  has 
one  end  in  a  sense  organ  and  the  other  in  a  muscle. 
This  arrangement  of  the  nerves  and  muscles  shows  that 
man  is  essentially  a  sensitive-action  machine.  The 
problems  connected  with  sensitivity  and  action  and 
the  relation  of  each  to  the  other  constitute  a  large 
part  of  the  field  of  psychology. 

We  said  just  now,  that  a  nerve  begins  in  a  sense  organ 
and  ends  in  a  muscle.  This  statement  represents  the 
general  scheme  well  enough,  but  leaves  out  an  im- 
portant detail.  The  nerve  does  not  extend  directly  to 
a  muscle,  but  ordinarily  goes  by  way  of  the  brain. 
The  brain  is  merely  a  great  group  of  nerve  cells  and 
fibers  which  have  developed  as  a  central  organ  where  a 


Introduction 


stimulation  may  pass  from  almost  any  sense  organ  to 
almost  any  muscle. 

But  another  importance  attaches  to  the  brain. 
When  a  sense  organ  is  stimulated  and  this  stimulation 
passes  on  to  the  brain  and  agitates  a  cell  or  group 
of  cells  there,  we  are  conscious.  Consciousness  shifts 
and  changes  with  every  shift  and  change  of  the  stim- 
ulation. 

The  brain  has  still  another  important  characteristic. 
After  it  has  been  stimulated  through  sense  organ  and 
nerve,  a  similar  brain  activity  can  be  revived  later, 
and  this  revival  is  the  basis  of  memory.  When  the 
brain  is  agitated  through  the  medium  of  a  sense  organ, 
we  have  sensation;  when  this  agitation  is  revived  later, 
we  have  a  memory  idea.  A  study  of  consciousness,  or 
mind,  the  conditions  under  which  it  arises,  and  all  the 
other  problems  involved,  give  us  the  other  part  of  the 
field  of  psychology. 

We  are  not  merely  acting  beings ;  we  are  conscious 
acting  beings.  Psychology  must  study  human  nature 
from  both  points  of  view.  We  must  study  man  not 
only  from  the  outside ;  that  is,  objectively,  in  the  same 
way  that  we  study  a  stone  or  a  tree  or  a  frog,  but  we 
must  study  him  from  the  inside  or  subjectively.  It  is 
of  importance  to  know  not  only  how  a  man  acts,  but 
also  how  he  thinks  and  feels. 

It  must  be  clear  now,  that  human  action,  human 
behavior,  is  the  main  field  of  psychology.  For,  even 
though  our  main  interests  in  people  were  in  their 
minds,  we  could  learn  of  the  minds  only  through  the 
actions.  But  our  interests  in  other  human  beings 
are  not  in  their  minds  but  in  what  they  do.  It  is  true 
that  our  interest  in  ourselves  is  in  our  minds,  and  we  can 
know  these  minds  directly ;  but  we  cannot  know  directly 


8  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

the  mind  of  another  person,  we  can  only  guess  what  it 
is  from  the  person's  actions. 

The  Problems  of  Psychology.  Let  us  now  see,  in 
some  detail,  what  the  various  problems  of  psychology 
are.  If  we  are  to  understand  human  nature,  we  must 
know  something  of  man's  past;  we  must  therefore 
treat  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the  human  race. 
The  relation  of  one  generation  to  that  preceding  and 
to  the  one  following  makes  necessary  a  study  of  hered- 
ity. We  must  find  out  how  our  thoughts,  feelings, 
sensations,  and  ideas  are  dependent  upon  a  physical 
body  and  its  organs.  A  study  of  human  actions  shows 
that  some  actions  are  unlearned  while  others  are 
learned  or  acquired.  The  unlearned  acts  are  known  as 
instincts  and  the  acquired  acts  are  known  as  habits. 
Our  psychology  must,  therefore,  treat  of  instincts  and 
habits. 

How  man  gets  experience,  and  retains  and  organizes 
this  experience  must  be  our  problem  in  the  chapters  on 
sensations,  ideas,  memory,  and  thinking.  Individual 
differences  in  human  capacity  make  necessary  a  treat- 
ment of  the  different  types  and  grades  of  intelligence, 
and  the  compilation  of  tests  for  determining  these 
differences.  We  must  also  treat  of  the  application  of 
psychology  to  those  fields  where  a  knowledge  of 
human  nature  is  necessary. 

Applied  Psychology.  At  the  beginning  of  a  sub- 
ject it  is  legitimate  to  inquire  concerning  the  possibility 
of  applying  the  principles  studied  to  practical  uses, 
and  it  is  very  proper  to  make  this  inquiry  concerning 
psychology.  Psychology,  being  the  science  of  human 
nature,  ought  to  be  of  use  in  all  fields  where  one  needs 
to  know  the  causes  of  human  action.  And  psychology 
is  applicable  in  these  fields  to  the  extent  that  the  psy- 


Introduction 


chologist  is  able  to  work  out  the  laws  and  principles  of 
human  action. 

In  education,  for  example,  we  wish  to  influence 
children,  and  we  must  go  to  psychology  to  learn  about 
the  nature  of  children  and  to  find  out  how  we  can  in- 
fluence them.  Psychology  is  therefore  the  basis  of  the 
science  of  education. 

Since  different  kinds  of  work  demand,  in  some  cases, 
different  kinds  of  ability,  the  psychology  of  individual 
differences  can  be  of  service  in  selecting  people  for 
special  kinds  of  work.  That  is  to  say,  we  must  have 
sometime,  if  we  do  not  now,  a  psychology  of  profes- 
sions and  vocations.  Psychological  investigations  of 
the  reliability  of  human  evidence  make  the  science  of 
service  in  the  court  room.  The  study  of  the  laws  of 
attention  and  interest  give  us  the  psychology  of  adver- 
tising. The  study  of  suggestion  and  abnormal  states 
make  psychology  of  use  in  medicine.  It  may  be  said, 
therefore,  that  psychology,  once  abstract  and  unrelated 
to  any  practical  interests,  will  become  the  most  useful 
of  all  sciences,  as  it  works  out  its  problems  and  finds 
the  laws  of  human  behavior. 

At  present,  the  greatest  service  of  psychology  is  to 
education.  So  true  is  this  that  a  department  has 
grown  up  called  "  educational  psychology,"  which 
constitutes  at  the  present  time  the  most  important 
subdivision  of  psychology.  While  in  this  book  we  treat 
briefly  of  the  various  applications  of  psychology,  we 
shall  have  in  mind  chiefly  its  application  to  education. 

The  Science  of  Education.  Owing  to  the  impor- 
tance which  psychology  has  in  the  science  of  education, 
it  will  be  well  for  us  to  make  some  inquiry  into  the 
nature  of  education.  If  the  growth,  development,  and 
learning  of  children  are  all  controlled  and  determined 


10  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

by  definite  causal  factors,  then  a  systematic  statement 
of  all  these  factors  would  constitute  the  science  of 
education.  In  order  to  see  clearly  whether  there  is 
such  a  science,  or  whether  there  can  be,  let  us  inquire 
more  definitely  as  to  the  kind  of  problems  a  science  of 
education  would  be  expected  to  solve. 

There  are  four  main  questions  which  the  science  of 
education  must  solve :  (1)  What  is  the  aim  of  educa- 
tion? (2)  What  is  the  nature  of  education?  (3)  What 
is  the  nature  of  the  child?  (4)  What  are  the  most 
economical  methods  of  changing  the  child  from  what 
it  is  into  what  it  ought  to  be? 

The  first  question  is  a  sociological  question,  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  find  the  answer.  We  have  but  to  in- 
quire what  the  people  wish  their  children  to  become. 
There  is  a  pretty  general  agreement,  at  least  in  the 
same  community,  that  children  should  be  trained  in  a 
way  that  will  make  them  socially  efficient.  Parents 
generally  wish  their  children  to  become  honest,  truth- 
ful, sympathetic,  and  industrious.  It  should  be  the 
aim  of  education  to  accomplish  this  social  ideal.  It 
should  be  the  aim  of  the  home  and  the  school  to  sub- 
ject children  to  such  influences  as  will  enable  them  to 
make  a  living  when  grown  and  to  do  their  proper  share 
of  work  for  the  community  and  state,  working  always 
for  better  things,  and  having  a  sympathetic  attitude 
toward  neighbors.  Education  should  also  do  what  it 
can  to  make  people  able  to  enjoy  the  world  and  life 
to  the  fullest  and  highest  extent.  Some  such  aim  of 
education  as  this  is  held  by  all  our  people. 

The  second  question  is  also  answered.  Psychological 
analysis  reveals  the  fact  that  education  is  a  process  of 
becoming  adjusted  to  the  world.  It  is  the  process  of 
acquiring  the  habits,  knowledge,  and  ideals  suited  to 


Introduction  11 

the  life  we  are  to  live.  The  child  in  being  educated 
learns  what  the  world  is  and  how  to  act  in  it  —  how  to 
act  in  all  the  various  situations  of  life. 

The  third  question  —  concerning  the  nature  of  the 
child  —  cannot  be  so  briefly  answered.  In  fact,  it 
cannot  be  fully  answered  at  the  present  time.  We 
must  know  what  the  child's  original  nature  is.  This 
means  that  we  must  know  the  instincts  and  all  the 
other  inherited  capacities  and  tendencies.  We  must 
know  the  laws  of  building  up  habits  and  of  acquiring 
knowledge,  the  laws  of  retention  and  the  laws  of  atten- 
tion. These  problems  constitute  the  subject  matter 
of  educational  psychology,  and  at  present  can  be  only 
partially  solved.  We  have,  however,  a  very  respect- 
able body  of  knowledge  in  this  field,  though  it  is  by  no 
means  complete. 

The  answer  to  the  fourth  question  is  in  part  de- 
pendent upon  the  progress  in  answering  the  third. 
Economical  methods  of  training  children  must  be 
dependent  upon  the  nature  of  children.  But  in  actual 
practice,  we  are  trying  to  find  out  the  best  procedure 
of  doing  each  single  thing  in  school  work ;  we  are  try- 
ing to  find  out  by  experimentation.  The  proper  way 
to  teach  children  to  read,  to  spell,  to  write,  etc.,  must 
be  determined  in  each  case  by  independent  investiga- 
tion, until  our  knowledge  of  the  child  becomes  suffi- 
cient for  us  to  infer  from  general  laws  of  procedure 
what  the  procedure  in  a  particular  case  should  be. 
We  venture  to  infer  what  ought  to  be  done  in  some 
cases,  but  generally  we  feel  insecure  till  we  have  proved 
our  inference  correct  by  trying  out  different  methods 
and  measuring  the  results. 

Education  will  not  be  fully  scientific  till  we  have 
definite  knowledge  to  guide  us  at  every  step.     What 


12  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

should  we  teach?  When  should  we  teach  it?  How 
should  we  teach  it?  How  poorly  we  answer  these 
questions  at  the  present  time !  How  inefficient  and 
uneconomical  our  schools,  because  we  cannot  fully 
answer  them !  But  they  are  answerable.  We  can 
answer  them  in  part  now,  and  we  know  how  to  find 
out  the  answer  in  full.  It  is  just  a  matter  of  patient 
and  extensive  investigation.  We  must  say,  then,  that 
we  have  only  the  beginnings  of  a  science  of  education. 
The  problems  which  a  science  of  education  must  solve 
are  almost  wholly  psychological  problems.  They 
could  not  be  solved  till  we  had  a  science  of  psychology. 
Experimental  psychology  is  but  a  half -century  old ; 
educational  psychology,  less  than  a  quarter-century 
old.  In  the  field  of  education,  the  science  of  psy- 
chology may  expect  to  make  its  most  important  prac- 
tical contribution.  Let  us,  then,  consider  very  briefly 
the  problems  of  educational  psychology. 

Educational  Psychology.  Educational  psychology 
is  that  division  of  psychology  which  undertakes  to  dis- 
cover those  aspects  of  human  nature  most  closely  re- 
lated to  education.  These  are  (1)  the  original  nature 
of  the  child  —  what  it  is  and  how  it  can  be  modified ; 
(2)  the  problem  of  acquiring  and  organizing  experience 
—  habit-formation,  memory,  thinking,  and  the  various 
factors  related  to  these  processes.  There  are  many 
subordinate  problems,  such  as  the  problem  of  individual 
differences  and  their  bearing  on  the  education  of  sub- 
normal and  supernormal  children.  Educational  psy- 
chology is  not,  then,  merely  the  application  of  psy- 
chology to  education.  It  is  a  distinct  science  in  itself, 
and  its  aim  is  the  solving  of  those  educational  prob- 
lems which  for  their  solution  depend  upon  a  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  the  child. 


Introduction  13 

The  Method  of  Psychology.  We  have  enumerated 
the  various  problems  of  psychology,  now  how  are  they 
solved?  The  method  of  psychology  is  the  same  as 
that  of  all  other  sciences ;  namely,  the  method  of  obser- 
vation and  experiment.  We  learn  human  nature  by 
observing  how  human  beings  act  in  all  the  various 
circumstances  of  life.  We  learn  about  the  human 
mind  by  observing  our  own  mind.  We  learn  that  we 
see  under  certain  objective  conditions,  hear  under  cer- 
tain objective  conditions,  taste,  smell,  feel  cold  and 
warm  under  certain  objective  conditions.  In  the  case 
of  ourselves,  we  can  know  both  our  actions  and  our 
mind.  In  the  case  of  others,  we  can  know  only  their 
actions,  and  must  infer  their  mental  states  from  our 
own  in  similar  circumstances.  With  certain  restric- 
tions and  precautions  this  inference  is  legitimate. 

We  said  the  method  of  psychology  is  that  of  obser- 
vation and  experiment.  The  experiment  is  observa- 
tion still,  but  observation  subjected  to  exact  methodical 
procedure.  In  a  psychological  experiment  we  set  out 
to  provide  the  necessary  conditions,  eliminating  some 
and  supplying  others  according  to  our  object.  The 
experiment  has  certain  advantages.  It  enables  us  to 
isolate  the  phenomena  to  be  studied,  it  enables  us  to 
vary  the  circumstances  and  conditions  to  suit  our  pur- 
poses, it  enables  us  to  repeat  the  observation  as  often  as 
we  like,  and  it  enables  us  to  measure  exactly  the  factors 
of  the  phenomena  studied. 

A  Psychological  Experiment.  Let  us  illustrate  psy- 
chological method  by  a  typical  experiment.  Suppose 
we  wish  to  measure  the  individual  differences  among  the 
members  of  a  class  with  respect  to  a  certain  ability ; 
namely,  the  muscular  speed  of  the  right  hand.  Psy- 
chological  laboratories   have   delicate   apparatus   for 


14  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

making  such  a  study.  But  let  us  see  how  we  can  do  it, 
roughly  at  least,  without  any  apparatus.  Let  each 
member  of  the  class  take  a  sheet  of  paper  and  a  pencil, 
and  make  as  many  strokes  as  possible  in  a  half-minute, 
as  shown  in  Figure  I.  The  instructor  can  keep  the  time 
with  a  stop  watch,  or  less  accurately  with  the  second 

/////  UivniiniH  luwwDinmnmnw 

///////l//;////////0/W!Jl)))ll)lh)))ii>k 

Figure  I.  — Strokes  Made  in  Thirty  Seconds 
A  test  of  muscular  speed 

hand  of  an  ordinary  watch.  Before  beginning  the 
experiment,  the  instructor  should  have  each  student 
taking  the  test  try  it  for  a  second  or  two.  This  is  to 
make  sure  that  all  understand  what  they  are  to  do. 
When  the  instructor  is  sure  that  all  understand,  he 
should  have  the  students  hold  their  pencils  in  readiness 
above  the  paper,  and  at  the  signal,  "  Begin,"  all  should 
start  at  the  same  time  and  make  as  many  marks  as 
possible  in  the  half-minute.  The  strokes  can  then  be 
counted  and  the  individual  scores  recorded.  The  ex- 
periment should  be  repeated  several  times,  say  six 
or  eight,  and  the  average  score  for  each  individual  re- 
corded. 

Whether  the  result  in  such  a  performance  as  this 
varies  from  day  to  day,  and  is  accidental,  or  whether 
it  is  constant  and  fundamental,  can  be  determined  by 
repeating  the  experiment  from  day  to  day.  This  repe- 
tition will  also  show  whether  improvement  comes  from 
practice. 


Introduction  15 


If  it  is  decided  to  repeat  the  experiment  in  order  to 
study  these  factors,  constancy  and  the  effects  of  prac- 
tice, some  method  of  studying  and  interpreting  the 
results  must  be  found.  Elaborate  methods  of  doing 
this  are  known  to  psychologists,  but  the  beginner  must 
use  a  simpler  method.  When  the  experiment  is  per- 
formed for  the  first  time,  the  students  can  be  ranked 
with  reference  to  their  abilities,  the  fastest  one  being 
called  "first,"  the  second  highest,  "second,"  and  so  on 
down  to  the  slowest  performer.  Then  after  the  experi- 
ment has  been  performed  the  second  time,  the  students 
can  be  again  ranked. 

A  rough  comparison  can  then  be  made  as  follows : 
Determine  how  many  who  were  in  the  best  half  in  the 
first  experiment  are  among  the  best  half  in  the  second 
experiment.  If  most  who  were  among  the  best  half 
the  first  time  are  among  the  best  half  in  the  second 
experiment,  constancy  in  this  performance  is  indi- 
cated. Or  we  might  determine  how  many  change 
their  ranks  and  how  much  they  change.  Suppose 
there  are  thirty  in  the  class  and  only  four  improve 
their  ranks  and  these  to  the  extent  of  only  two 
places  each.  This  would  indicate  a  high  degree  of 
constancy.  Two  different  performances  can  be  com- 
pared as  above  described.  The  abilities  on  succes- 
sive days  can  be  determined  by  taking  the  average 
rank  of  the  first  day  and  comparing  it  with  the  average 
rank  of  the  second  day. 

If  the  effects  of  practice  are  to  be  studied,  the  experi- 
ments must  be  kept  up  for  many  days,  and  each  stu- 
dent's work  on  the  first  day  compared  with  his  work 
on  succeeding  days.  Then  a  graph  can  be  plotted  to 
show  the  improvement  from  day  to  day.  The  average 
daily  speed  of  the  class  can  be  taken  and  a  graph  made 


16  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

to  show  the  improvement  of  the  class  as  a  whole.  This 
might  be  plotted  in  black  ink,  then  each  individual 
student  could  put  on  his  improvement  in  red  ink,  for 
comparison.  A  group  of  thirty  may  be  considered  as 
furnishing  a  fair  average  or  norm  in  this  kind  of  per- 
formance. 

In  connection  with  this  simple  performance,  making 
marks  as  fast  as  possible,  it  is  evident  that  many  prob- 
lems arise.  It  would  take  several  months  to  solve 
anything  like  all  of  them.  It  might  be  interesting,  for 
example,  to  determine  whether  one's  speed  in  writing 
is  related  to  this  simple  speed  in  marking.  Each 
member  of  the  class  might  submit  a  plan  for  making 
such  a  study. 

The  foregoing  simple  study  illustrates  the  procedure 
of  psychology  in  all  experimentation.  A  psychological 
experiment  is  an  attempt  to  find  out  the  truth  in  regard 
to  some  aspect  of  human  nature.  In  finding  out  this 
truth,  we  must  throw  about  the  experiment  all  possible 
safeguards.  Every  source  of  error  must  be  discovered 
and  eliminated.  In  the  above  experiment,  for  example, 
the  work  must  be  done  at  the  same  time  of  day,  or  else 
we  must  prove  that  doing  it  at  different  times  of  day 
makes  no  difference.  Nothing  must  be  taken  for 
granted,  and  nothing  must  be  assumed.  Psychology, 
then,  is  like  all  the  other  sciences,  in  that  its  method  of 
getting  its  facts  is  by  observation  and  experiment. 

Summary.  Science  is  systematic,  related  knowledge.  Each 
science  has  a  particular  field  which  it  attempts  to  explore  and 
describe.  The  field  of  psychology  is  the  study  of  sensitivity, 
action,  and  consciousness,  or  briefly,  human  behavior.  Its  main 
problems  are  development,  heredity,  instincts,  habits,  sensation, 
memory,  thinking,  and  individual  differences.  Its  method  is 
observation  and  experiment,  the  same  as  in  all  other  sciences. 


Introduction  17 


CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Make  out  a  list  of  things  about  human  nature  which  you 
would  like  to  know.  Paste  your  list  in  the  front  of  this  book, 
and  as  you  find  your  questions  answered  in  this  book,  or  in  other 
books  which  you  may  read,  check  them  off.  At  the  end  of  the 
course,  note  how  many  remain  unanswered.  Find  out  whether 
those  not  answered  can  be  answered  at  the  present  time. 

2.  Does  everything  you  do  have  a  cause?  What  kind  of 
cause  ? 

3.  Human  nature  is  shown  in  human  action.  Human  action 
consists  in  muscular  contraction.     What  makes  a  muscle  contract? 

4.  Plan  an  experiment  the  object  of  which  shall  be  to  learn 
something  about  yourself. 

5.  Enumerate  the  professions  and  occupations  in  which  a 
knowledge  of  some  aspect  of  human  nature  would  be  valuable. 
State  in  what  way  it  would  be  valuable. 

6.  Make  a  list  of  facts  concerning  a  child,  which  a  teacher 
ought  to  know. 

7.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  Chapter  I. 

REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS   READING 

Munsterberg  :    Psychology,  General  and  Applied,    Chapters  I, 

II,  and  V. 
Pillsbury  :   Essentials  of  Psijchology,  Chapter  I. 
Pyle  :   The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psijchology,  Chapter  I. 
Titchener  :    A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapter  I. 


CHAPTER   II 

DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE   RACE   AND    OF   THE 

INDIVIDUAL 

Racial  Development.  The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is 
to  make  some  inquiry  concerning  the  origin  of  the  race 
and  of  the  individual.  In  doing  this,  it  is  necessary  for 
us  first  of  all  to  fix  in  our  minds  the  idea  of  causality. 
According  to  the  view  of  all  modern  science,  every- 
thing has  a  cause.  Nothing  is  uncaused.  One  event 
is  the  result  of  other  previous  events,  and  is  in  turn  the 
cause  of  other  events  that  follow.  Yesterday  flowed  into 
to-day,  and  to-day  flows  into  to-morrow.  The  world 
as  it  exists  to-day  is  the  result  of  the  world  as  it  existed 
yesterday.  This  is  true  not  only  of  the  inorganic 
world  —  the  world  of  physics  and  chemistry  —  but  it 
is  true  of  living  things  as  well.  The  animals  and 
plants  that  exist  to-day  are  the  descendants  of  others 
that  lived  before.  There  is  probably  an  unbroken  line 
of  descent  from  the  first  life  that  existed  on  the  earth 
to  the  living  forms  of  to-day. 

Not  only  does  the  law  of  causality  hold  true  in  the 
case  of  our  bodies,  but  of  our  minds  as  well.  Our  minds 
have  doubtless  developed  from  simpler  minds  just  as 
our  bodies  have  developed  from  simpler  bodies.  That 
different  grades  and  types  of  minds  are  to  be  found 
among  the  various  classes  of  animals  now  upon  the  earth, 
no  one  can  doubt,  for  the  different  forms  certainly  show 

18 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual     19 

different  degrees  of  mentality.  According  to  the  evi- 
dence of  those  scientists  who  have  studied  the  remains  of 
animals  found  in  the  earth's  crust,  there  is  a  gradual  de- 
velopment of  animal  forms  shown  in  successive  epochs. 
In  the  very  oldest  parts  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  remains 
of  animal  life  found  are  very  simple.  In  later  forma- 
tions, the  remains  show  an  animal  life  more  complex. 
The  highest  forms  of  animals,  the  mammals,  are  found 
only  in  the  more  recent  formations.  The  remains  of 
man  are  found  only  in  the  latest  formations. 

Putting  these  two  facts  together  —  (1)  that  the 
higher  types  of  mind  are  found  to-day  only  in  the 
higher  types  of  animals,  and  (2)  that  a  gradual  devel- 
opment of  animal  forms  is  shown  by  the  remains  in  the 
earth's  crust  —  the  conclusion  is  forced  upon  us  that 
mind  has  passed  through  many  stages  of  development 
from  the  appearance  of  life  upon  the  earth  to  the  present 
time.  Among  the  lower  forms  of  animals  to-day  one 
sees  evidence  of  very  simple  minds.  In  amoebas, 
worms,  insects,  and  fishes,  mind  is  very  simple.  In 
birds,  it  is  higher.  In  mammals,  it  is  higher  still. 
Among  the  highest  mammals  below  man,  we  see 
manifestations  of  mind  somewhat  like  our  own.  These 
grades  of  mentality  shown  in  the  animals  of  to-day 
represent  the  steps  in  the  development  of  mind  in  the 
animals  of  the  past. 

We  cannot  here  go  into  the  proof  of  the  doctrine  of 
development.  For  this  proof,  the  reader  must  be 
referred  to  zoology.  One  further  point,  however,  may 
be  noted.  If  it  is  difficult  for  the  reader  to  conceive 
of  the  development  of  mind  on  the  earth  similar  to  the 
development  of  animals  in  the  past,  let  him  think  of 
the  development  of  mind  in  the  individual.  There  can 
certainly  be  no  doubt  of  the  development  of  mind  in 


20  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

an  individual  human  being.  The  infant,  when  born, 
shows  little  manifestation  of  mentality ;  but  as  its  body 
grows,  its  mind  develops,  becoming  more  and  more 
complex  as  the  individual  grows  to  maturity. 

The  World  as  Dynamic.  The  view  of  the  world 
outlined  above,  and  held  by  all  scientific  men  of  the 
present  time,  may  be  termed  the  dynamic  view.  Man 
formerly  looked  upon  the  world  as  static,  a  world  where 
everything  was  fixed  and  final.  Each  thing  existed  in 
itself  and  for  itself,  and  in  large  measure  independent  of 
all  other  things.  We  now  look  upon  things  and  events 
as  related  and  dependent.  Each  thing  is  dependent 
upon  others,  related  to  others. 

Man  not  only  lives  in  such  a  world,  but  is  part  of  such 
a  world.  In  this  world  of  constant  and  ceaseless  change, 
man  is  most  sensitive  and  responsive.  Everything 
may  affect  him.  To  all  of  the  constant  changes  about 
him  he  must  adjust  himself.  He  has  been  produced 
by  this  world,  and  to  live  in  it  he  must  meet  its  every 
condition  and  change.  We  must,  then,  look  upon  hu- 
man nature  as  something  coming  out  of  the  past  and  as 
being  influenced  every  moment  by  the  things  and  forces 
of  the  present.  Man  is  not  an  independent  being, 
unaffected  by  everything  that  happens ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  is  affected  by  all  influences  that  act  upon  him. 
Among  these  influences  may  be  mentioned  weather, 
climate,  food,  and  social  forces. 

The  condition  of  the  various  organs  of  a  child's  body 
determine,  to  some  extent,  the  effect  which  these 
various  forces  have  upon  it.  If  a  child's  eyes  are  in 
any  way  defective,  making  vision  poor,  this  tre- 
mendously influences  his  life.  Not  only  is  such  a  child 
unable  to  see  the  world  as  it  really  is,  but  the  eyestrain 
resulting  from  poor  vision  has  serious  effects  on  the 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual    21 

child,  producing  all  sorts  of  disorders.  If  a  child  can- 
not hear  well  or  is  entirely  deaf,  many  serious  conse- 
quences follow.  In  fact,  every  condition  or  character- 
istic of  a  child  that  is  in  any  way  abnormal  may  lead 
on  to  other  conditions  and  characteristics,  often  of  a 
serious  nature.  The  growth  of  adenoids,  for  example, 
may  lead  to  a  serious  impairment  of  the  mind.  Poor 
vision  may  affect  the  whole  life  and  character  of  the 
individual.  The  influence  of  a  parent,  teacher,  or 
friend  may  determine  the  interest  of  a  child  and  affect 
his  whole  life.  The  correct  view  of  child  life  is  that 
the  child  is  affected,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  by  every 
influence  which  acts  upon  him. 

Significance  of  Development  and  Causality.  What 
are  the  consequences  of  the  view  just  set  forth  ?  What 
is  the  significance  of  the  facts  that  have  been  enumer- 
ated ?  It  is  of  great  consequence  to  our  thinking  when 
we  come  to  recognize  fully  the  idea  of  causality.  We 
then  fully  accept  the  fact  that  man's  body  and  mind 
are  part  of  a  causal  and  orderly  world. 

Let  us  consider,  for  example,  the  movement  of  a 
muscle.  Every  such  movement  must  be  caused.  The 
physiologist  has  discovered  what  this  cause  is.  Ordi- 
narily and  normally,  a  muscle  contracts  only  when  stim- 
ulated by  a  nerve  current.  Tiny  nerve  fibrils  penetrate 
every  muscle,  ending  in  the  muscle  fibers.  The  nerve- 
impulse  passing  into  the  fibers  of  the  muscles  causes 
them  to  contract.  The  nerve  stimulus  itself  has  a 
cause ;  it  ordinarily  arises  directly  or  indirectly  from  the 
stimulation  of  a  sense  organ.  And  the  sense  organs 
are  stimulated  by  outside  influences,  as  was  explained 
previously. 

Not  only  are  our  movements  caused,  but  our  sensa- 
tions, our  ideas,  and  our  feelings  follow  upon  or  are 


22  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

dependent  upon  some  definite  bodily  state  or  condition. 
The  moment  that  we  recognize  this  we  see  that  our 
sensations,  ideas,  and  feelings  are  subject  to  control. 
It  is  only  because  our  minds  are  in  a  world  of  causality, 
and  subject  to  its  laws,  that  education  is  possible. 
We  can  bring  causes  to  bear  upon  a  child  and  change 
the  child.  It  is  possible  to  build  up  ideas,  ideals,  and 
habits.  And  ideas,  ideals,  and  habits  constitute  the 
man.  Training  is  possible  only  because  a  child  is  a 
being  that  can  be  influenced.  What  any  child  will  be 
when  grown  depends  upon  what  kind  of  child  it  was 
at  the  beginning  and  upon  the  influences  that  affect  it 
during  its  early  life  while  it  is  growing  into  maturity. 
We  need  have  no  doubt  about  the  outcome  of  any 
particular  child  if  we  know,  with  some  degree  of  com- 
pleteness, the  two  sets  of  factors  that  determine  his 
life  —  his  inheritance  and  the  forces  that  affect  this 
inheritance.  We  can  predict  the  future  of  a  child  to  the 
extent  that  we  know  and  understand  the  forces  that  will 
be  effective  in  his  life. 

The  notion  of  causality  puts  new  meaning  into  our 
view  of  the  training  of  a  child.  The  doctrine  of  devel- 
opment puts  new  meaning  into  our  notion  of  the 
nature  of  a  child.  We  can  understand  man  only  when 
we  view  him  genetically,  that  is,  in  the  light  of  his 
origin.  We  can  understand  a  child  only  in  the  light  of 
what  his  ancestors  have  been. 

As  these  lines  are  being  written,  the  greatest,  the 
bloodiest  war  of  history  is  in  progress.  Men  are  killing 
men  by  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands.  How 
can  we  explain  such  actions?  Observation  of  children 
shows  that  they  are  selfish,  envious,  and  quarrelsome. 
They  will  fight  and  steal  until  they  are  taught  not  to 
do  such  things.     How  can  we  understand  this  ?    There 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual     23 


is  no  way  of  understanding  such  actions  until  we  come 
to  see  that  the  children  and  men  of  to-day  are  such  as 
they  are  because  of  their  ancestors.  It  has  been  only 
a  few  generations,  relatively  speaking,  since  our  an- 
cestors were  naked  savages,  killing  their  enemies  and 
eating  their  enemies'  bodies.  The  civilized  life  of  our 
ancestors  covers  a  period  of  only  a  few  hundred  years. 
The  pre-civilized  life  of  our  ancestors  goes  back  prob- 
ably thousands  and  thousands  of  years.  In  the  rela- 
tively short  period  of  civilization,  our  real,  original 
nature  has  been  little  changed,  perhaps  none  at  all. 
The  modern  man  is,  at  heart,  the  same  old  man  of  the 
woods. 

The  improvements  of  civilization  form  what  is  called 
a  social  heritage,  which  must  be  impressed  upon  the 
original  nature  of  each  individual  in  order  to  have  any 
effect.  Every  child  has  to  learn  to  speak,  to  write,  to 
dress,  to  eat  with  knife  and  fork ;  he  must  learn  the  vari- 
ous social  customs,  and  to  act  morally  as  older  people 
dictate.  The  child  is  by  nature  bad,  in  the  sense  that 
the  nature  which  he  inherits  from  the  past  fits  him 
better  for  the  original  kind  of  life  which  man  used  to 
live  than  it  does  for  the  kind  of  life  which  we  are  trying 
to  live  now.  This  view  makes  us  see  that  training  a 
child  is,  in  a  very  true  sense,  making  him  over  again. 
The  child  must  be  trained  to  subdue  and  control  his 
original  impulses.  Habits  and  ideals  that  will  be  suit- 
able for  life  in  civilized  society  must  be  built  up.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  the  original  nature  of 
man  being  sinful,  and  the  necessity  of  regeneration,  is 
fundamentally  correct.  But  this  regeneration  is  not  so 
much  a  sudden  process  as  it  is  the  result  of  long  and 
patient  building-up  of  habits  and  ideals. 

One  should  not  despair  of  this  view  of  child-life. 


24  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Neither  should  one  use  it  as  an  excuse  for  being  bad, 
or  for  neglecting  the  training  of  children.  On  the  con- 
trary, taking  the  genetic  view  of  childhood  should  give 
us  certain  advantages.  It  makes  us  see  more  clearly 
the  necessity  of  training.  Every  child  must  be  trained, 
or  he  will  remain  very  much  a  savage.  In  the  absence 
of  training,  all  children  are  much  alike,  and  all  alike 
bad  from  our  present  point  of  view.  The  chief  differ- 
ences in  children  in  politeness  and  manners  generally, 
in  morals,  in  industry,  etc.,  are  due,  in  the  main,  to 
differences  in  training.  It  is  a  great  help  merely  to 
know  how  difficult  the  task  of  training  is,  and  that 
training  there  must  be  if  we  are  to  have  a  civilized  child. 
We  must  take  thought  and  plan  for  the  education  and 
training  of  our  children.  The  task  of  education  is  in 
part  one  of  changing  human  nature.  This  is  no  light 
task.  It  is  one  that  requires,  in  the  case  of  each  child, 
some  twenty  years  of  hard,  patient,  persistent  work. 

Individual  Development.  Heredity  is  a  corollary 
of  evolution.  Individual  development  is  intimately 
related  to  racial  development.  Indeed,  racial  develop- 
ment would  be  impossible  without  heredity  in  the  in- 
dividual. The  individual  must  carry  on  and  transmit 
what  the  race  hands  down  to  him.  This  will  be  evi- 
dent when  we  explain  what  heredity  means. 

By  heredity  we  mean  the  likeness  between  parent  and 
offspring.  This  likeness  is  a  matter  of  form  and  struc- 
ture as  well  as  likeness  of  action  or  response.  Animals 
and  plants  are  like  the  parents  in  form  and  structure, 
and  to  a  certain  extent  their  responses  are  alike  when 
the  individuals  are  placed  in  the  same  situation.  A 
robin  is  like  the  parent  robins  in  size,  shape,  and  color. 
It  also  hops  like  the  parent  birds,  sings  as  they  do, 
feeds  as  they  do,  builds  a  similar  nest,  etc.     But  the 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual     25 


likeness  in  action  is  dependent  upon  likeness  in  struc- 
ture. The  young  robin  acts  as  does  the  old  robin, 
because  the  nervous  mechanism  is  the  same,  and  there- 
fore a  similar  stimulus  brings  about  a  similar  response. 

Most  of  the  scientific  work  in  heredity  has  been  done 
in  the  study  of  the  transmission  of  physical  character- 
istics. The  main  facts  of  heredity  are  evident  to 
everybody,  but  not  many  people  realize  how  far-reach- 
ing is  the  principle  of  resemblance  between  parent  and 
offspring.  From  horses  we  raise  horses.  From  cows 
we  raise  cows.  The  children  of  human  beings  are 
human.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but  the  offspring  of 
horses  are  of  the  same  stock  as  the  parents.  Not  only 
are  the  colts  of  the  same  stock  as  the  parents,  but  they 
resemble  the  parents  in  small  details.  This  is  also 
true  of  human  beings.  We  expect  a  child  to  be  not 
only  of  the  same  race  as  the  parents,  but  to  have  family 
resemblances  to  the  parents  —  the  same  color  of  hair, 
the  same  shape  of  head,  the  same  kind  of  nose,  the  same 
color  of  eyes,  and  to  have  such  resemblances  as  moles 
in  the  same  places  on  the  skin,  etc.  A  very  little  in- 
vestigation reveals  likenesses  between  parent  and  off- 
spring which  we  may  not  have  expected  before. 

However,  if  we  start  out  to  hunt  for  facts  of  heredity, 
we  shall  perhaps  be  as  much  impressed  by  differences 
between  parent  and  child  as  we  shall  by  the  resem- 
blances. In  the  first  place,  every  child  has  two  parents, 
and  it  is  often  impossible  to  resemble  both.  One  can- 
not, for  example,  be  both  short  and  tall ;  one  cannot 
be  both  fair  and  dark ;  one  cannot  be  both  slender  and 
heavy;  one  cannot  have  both  brown  eyes  and  blue. 
In  some  cases,  the  child  resembles  one  parent  and  not 
the  other.  In  other  cases,  the  child  looks  somewhat 
like  both  parents  but  not  exactly  like  either.     If  one 


26  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


parent  is  white  and  the  other  black,  the  child  is 
neither  as  white  as  the  one  parent  nor  as  black  as 
the  other. 

The  parents  of  a  child  are  themselves  different,  but 
there  are  four  grandparents,  and  each  of  them  different 
from  the  others.  There  are  eight  great  grandparents, 
and  all  of  them  different.  If  we  go  back  only  seven 
generations,  covering  a  period  of  perhaps  only  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  we  have  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
ancestors.  If  we  go  back  ten  generations,  we  have  over 
a  thousand  ancestors  in  our  line  of  descent.  Each  of 
these  people  was,  in  some  measure,  different  from  the 
others.  Our  inheritance  comes  from  all  of  them  and 
from  each  of  them. 

How  do  all  of  these  diverse  characteristics  work  out 
in  the  child  ?  In  the  first  place,  it  seems  evident  that 
we  do  not  inherit  our  bodies  as  wholes,  but  in  parts  or 
units.  We  may  think  of  the  human  race  as  a  whole 
being  made  up  of  a  great  number  of  unit  characters. 
No  one  person  possesses  all  of  them.  Every  person  is 
lacking  in  some  of  them.  His  neighbor  may  be  lack- 
ing in  quite  different  ones.  Now  one  parent  transmits 
to  the  child  a  certain  combination  of  unit  characters ; 
the  other  parent,  a  different  combination.  These  char- 
acteristics may  not  all  appear  in  the  child,  but  all  are 
transmitted  through  it  to  the  next  generation,  and  they 
are  transmitted  purely.  By  being  transmitted  purely, 
we  mean  that  the  characteristic  does  not  seem  to  lose 
its  identity  and  disappear  in  fusions  or  mixtures.  The 
essential  point  in  this  doctrine  of  heredity  is  known  as 
Mendelism ;  it  is  the  principle  of  inheritance  through 
the  pure  transmission  of  unit  characters. 

An  illustration  will  probably  make  the  Mendelian 
principle  clear.     Let  us  select  our  illustration  from  the 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual    27 

plant  world.  It  is  found  that  if  white  and  yellow  corn 
are  crossed,  all  the  corn  the  first  year,  resulting  from  this 
crossing,  will  be  yellow.  Now,  if  this  hybrid  yellow 
corn  is  planted  the  second  year,  and  freely  cross-ferti- 
lized, it  turns  out  that  one  fourth  of  it  will  be  white  and 
three  fourths  yellow.  But  this  yellow  consists  of  three 
parts :  one  part  being  pure  yellow  which  will  breed  true, 
producing  nothing  but  yellow;  the  other  two  parts 
transmit  white  and  yellow  in  equal  ratio.  That  is  to 
say,  these  two  parts  are  hybrids,  the  result  of  crossing 
white  with  yellow.  It  is  not  meant  that  one  can  actu- 
ally distinguish  these  two  kinds  of  yellow,  the  pure 
yellow  and  the  hybrid  yellow,  but  the  results  from  plant- 
ing it  show  that  one  third  of  the  yellow  is  pure  and  that 
the  other  two  thirds  transmit  white  and  yellow  in  equal 
ratio. 

The  main  point  to  notice  in  all  this  is  that  when  two 
individuals  having  diverse  characteristics  are  crossed, 
the  characteristics  do  not  fuse  and  disappear  ultimately, 
but  that  the  two  characteristics  are  transmitted  in 
equal  ratio,  and  each  will  appear  in  succeeding  genera- 
tions, and  will  appear  pure,  just  as  if  it  had  not  been 
crossed  with  something  different.  The  first  offspring 
resulting  from  the  cross  —  known  as  hybrids  —  may 
show  either  one  or  the  other  of  the  diverse  charac- 
teristics, or,  when  such  a  thing  is  possible,  even  a 
blending  of  the  two  characteristics.  But  whatever 
the  actual  appearance  of  the  first  generation  of  off- 
spring resulting  from  crossing  parents  having  diverse 
characteristics,  their  germ-cells  transmit  the  diverse 
characteristics  in  equal  proportion,  as  explained  above. 

When  one  of  the  diverse  characteristics  appears  in 
the  first  generation  of  offspring  and  the  other  does  not 
appear,  or  is  not  apparent,  the  one  that  appears  is  said 


28  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


to  be  dominant,  while  the  one  not  appearing  is  said  to 
be  recessive.  In  our  example  of  the  yellow  and  white 
corn,  yellow  is  dominant  and  white  recessive.  And  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  white  corn  that  appears 
in  the  second  generation  will  breed  true  just  as  if  it 
had  never  been  crossed  with  the  yellow  corn.  One 
third  of  the  yellow  of  the  second  generation  would  also 
breed  true  if  it  could  be  separated  from  the  other  two 
thirds. 

It  is  not  here  claimed  that  Mendelism  is  a  universal 
principle,  that  all  characteristics  are  transmitted  in  this 
way.  However,  the  results  of  the  numerous  experi- 
ments in  heredity  lead  one  to  expect  this  to  be  the  case. 
Most  of  the  experiments  have  been  with  lower  animals 
and  with  plants,  but  recent  experiments  and  statistical 
studies  show  that  Mendelism  is  an  important  factor  in 
human  heredity,  in  such  characteristics  as  color  of  hair 
and  eyes  and  skin,  partial  color  blindness,  defects  of 
eye,  ear,  and  other  important  organs. 

The  studies  that  have  been  made  of  human  heredity 
have  been,  for  the  most  part,  studies  of  the  transmission 
of  physical  characteristics.  Very  little  has  been  done 
that  bears  directly  upon  the  transmission  of  mental 
characteristics.  But  our  knowledge  of  the  dependence 
of  mind  upon  body  should  prepare  us  to  infer  mental 
heredity  from  physical  heredity.  Such  studies  as  throw 
light  on  the  question  bear  us  out  in  making  such  an  in- 
ference. 

The  studies  that  have  been  more  directly  concerned 
with  mental  heredity  are  those  dealing  with  the  resem- 
blances of  twins,  studies  of  heredity  in  royalty,  studies 
of  the  inheritance  of  genius,  and  studies  of  the  trans- 
mission of  mental  defects  and  defects  of  sense  organs. 
The  results  of  all  these  studies  indicate  the  inheritance 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual    29 


of  mental  characteristics  in  the  same  way  that  physical 
characteristics  are  transmitted.  Not  only  are  human 
mental  characteristics  transmitted  from  parent  to  off- 
spring, but  they  seem  to  be  transmitted  in  Mendelian 
fashion. 

Feeble-mindedness,  for  example,  seems  to  be  a  Men- 
delian character  and  recessive.  From  the  studies 
that  have  been  made,  it  seems  that  two  congenitally 
feeble-minded  parents  will  have  only  feeble-minded 
children.  Feeble-mindedness  acts  in  heredity  as  does 
the  white  corn  in  the  example  given  above.  If  one  parent 
only  is  feeble-minded,  the  other  being  normal,  all  of 
the  children  will  be  normal,  just  as  all  of  the  corn,  in 
the  first  generation  after  the  crossing,  was  yellow. 
But  these  children  whose  parents  are  the  one  normal 
and  the  other  feeble-minded,  while  themselves  normal, 
transmit  feeble-mindedness  in  equal  ratio  with  normal- 
ity. It  works  out  as  follows :  If  a  feeble-minded  person 
marry  a  person  of  sound  mind  and  sound  stock,  the 
children  will  all  be  of  sound,  normal  mind.  If  these 
children  take  as  husbands  and  wives  men  and  women 
who  had  for  parents  one  normal  and  one  feeble-minded 
person,  their  children  will  be  one  fourth  feeble-minded 
and  three  fourths  of  them  normal. 

To  summarize  the  various  conditions :  If  a  feeble- 
minded person  marry  a  feeble-minded  person,  all  the 
children  will  be  feeble-minded.  If  a  feeble-minded 
person  marry  a  sound,  normal  person  (pure  stock), 
all  the  children  will  be  normal.  If  the  children,  in  the 
last  case,  marry  others  like  themselves  as  to  origin, 
one  fourth  of  their  offspring  will  be  feeble-minded. 
If  such  hybrid  children  marry  feeble-minded  persons, 
one  half  of  the  offspring  will  be  feeble-minded.  It 
is  rash  to  prophesy,  but  future  studies  of  heredity 


30  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


may  show  that  Mendelism,  or  some  modification  of 
the  principle,  always  holds  true  of  mind  as  well  as 
of  body. 

Little  can  be  said  about  the  transmission  of  particu- 
lar definite  mental  traits,  such  as  the  various  aspects 
of  memory,  association,  attention,  temperament,  etc. 
Before  we  can  speak  with  any  certainty  here,  we  must 
make  very  careful  experimental  studies  of  these  mental 
traits  in  parents  and  offspring.  No  such  work  has  been 
done.  All  we  have  at  the  present  time  is  the  result  of 
general  observation. 

Improvement  of  the  Race.  Eugenics  is  the  science 
of  improvement  of  the  human  race  by  breeding.  While 
we  can  train  children  and  thereby  make  them  much 
better  than  they  would  be  without  such  training,  this 
training  does  not  improve  the  stock.  The  improvement 
of  the  stock  can  be  accomplished  only  through  breed- 
ing from  the  best  and  preventing  the  poor  stock  from 
leaving  offspring.  This  is  a  well-known  principle  in  the 
breeding  of  domestic  animals. 

It  is  doubtless  just  as  true  in  the  case  of  human 
beings.  The  hygienic  and  scientific  rearing  of  children 
is  good  for  the  children  and  makes  their  lives  better, 
but  probably  does  not  affect  their  offspring.  We 
should  not  forget  that  all  the  social  and  educational 
influences  die  with  the  generation  that  receives  them. 
They  must  be  impressed  by  training  on  the  next  gen- 
eration or  that  generation  will  receive  no  influence  from 
them.  The  characters  which  we  acquire  in  our  life- 
time seem  not  to  be  transmitted  to  our  children,  except 
through  what  is  known  as  social  heredity,  which  is 
merely  the  taking  on  of  characteristics  through  imita- 
tion. Our  children  must  go  through  all  the  labor  of 
learning  to  read,  write,  spell,  add,  multiply,  subtract, 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual     31 

and  divide,  which  we  went  through.  Moral  traits, 
manners  and  customs,  and  other  habits  and  ideals  of 
social  importance  must  be  acquired  by  each  successive 
generation. 

Heredity  versus  Environment.  The  question  is  often 
asked  whether  heredity  or  the  influence  of  environment 
has  the  most  to  do  with  the  final  outcome  of  one's  life. 
It  is  a  rather  useless  question  to  ask,  for  what  a  human 
being  or  anything  else  in  the  world  does  depends  upon 
what  it  is  itself  and  what  the  things  and  forces  are  that 
act  upon  it.  Heredity  sets  a  limitation  for  us,  fixes 
the  possibilities.  The  circumstances  of  life  determine 
what  we  will  do  with  our  inherited  abilities  and 
characteristics.  Hereditary  influences  incline  us  to  be 
tall  or  short,  fat  or  lean,  light  or  dark.  The  charac- 
teristics of  our  memory,  association,  imagination,  our 
learning  capacity,  etc.,  are  determined  by  heredity. 
Of  course,  how  far  these  various  aspects  develop  is  to 
some  extent  dependent  upon  the  favorable  or  unfavor- 
able influences  of  the  environment.  What  is  possible 
for  us  to  do  is  settled  by  heredity ;  what  we  may  actually 
do,  what  we  may  have  the  opportunity  to  do,  is  largely 
a  matter  of  the  circumstances  of  life. 

In  certain  parts  of  New  England,  the  number  of  men 
who  become  famous  in  art,  science,  or  literature  is  very 
great  compared  to  the  number  in  some  other  parts  of 
our  country.  As  far  as  we  have  any  evidence,  the 
native  stocks  are  the  same  in  the  two  cases,  but  in  New 
England  the  influences  turn  men  into  the  direction  of 
science,  art,  and  literature.  Everything  there  is  fa- 
vorable. In  other  parts  of  the  country,  the  influences 
turn  men  into  other  spheres  of  activity.  They  become 
large  landowners,  men  of  business  and  affairs. 

The  question  may  be  asked  whether  genius  makes  its 


32  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

way  to  the  front  in  spite  of  unfavorable  circumstances. 
Sometimes  it  doubtless  does.  But  pugnacity  and  per- 
severance are  not  necessarily  connected  with  intellectual 
genius.  Genius  may  be  as  likely  to  be  timid  as  belliger- 
ent. Therefore  unfavorable  circumstances  may  crush 
many  a  genius. 

The  public  schools  ought  to  be  on  the  watch  for 
genius  in  any  and  all  kinds  of  work.  When  a  genius 
is  found,  proper  training  ought  to  be  provided  to 
develop  this  genius  for  the  good  of  society  as  well  as 
for  the  good  of  the  individual  himself.  A  few  children 
show  ability  in  drawing  and  painting,  others  in  music, 
others  in  mechanical  invention,  some  in  literary  con- 
struction. When  it  is  found  that  this  ability  is  un- 
doubtedly a  native  gift  and  not  a  passing  whim,  special 
opportunity  should  be  provided  for  its  development 
and  training.  It  will  be  better  for  the  general  welfare, 
as  well  as  for  individual  happiness,  if  each  does  in  life 
that  for  which  he  is  by  nature  best  fitted.  For  most 
of  us,  however,  there  is  not  much  difference  in  our 
abilities.  We  can  do  one  thing  as  well  as  we  can  many 
other  things.  But  in  a  few  there  are  undoubted  special 
native  gifts. 

Summary.  This  is  an  orderly  world,  in  which  everything  has  a 
cause.  All  events  are  connected  in  a  chain  of  causes  and  effects. 
Human  beings  live  in  this  world  of  natural  law  and  are  subject 
to  it.  Human  life  is  completely  within  this  world  of  law  and  order 
and  is  a  part  of  it.  Education  is  possible  only  because  we  can 
change  human  beings  by  having  influences  act  upon  them. 

Individuals  receive  their  original  traits  from  their  ancestors, 
probably  as  parts  or  units.  Mendelism  is  the  doctrine  of  the  pure 
transmission  of  unit  characters.  Eugenics  is  the  science  of  im- 
proving the  human  race  by  selective  breeding.  An  individual's 
life  is  the  result  of  the  interaction  of  his  hereditary  characteristics 
and  his  environment. 


Development  of  Race  and  of  Individual    33 


CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Try  to  find  rock  containing  the  remains  of  animals.  You 
can  get  information  on  such  matters  from  a  textbook  on  geology. 

2.  Read  in  a  geology  about  the  different  geological  epochs  in 
the  history  of  the  earth. 

3.  Make  a  comparison  of  the  length  of  infancy  in  the  lower 
animals  and  in  man.  What  is  the  significance  of  what  you  find? 
What  advantage  does  it  give  man? 

4.  What  is  natural  selection?  How  does  it  lead  to  change  in 
animals?  Does  natural  selection  still  operate  among  human 
beings?     (See  a  modern  textbook  on  zoology.) 

5.  By  observation  and  from  consulting  a  zoology,  learn  about 
the  different  classes  of  animal  forms,  from  low  forms  to  high  forms. 

6.  By  studying  domestic  animals,  see  what  you  can  learn  about 
heredity.  Enumerate  all  the  points  that  you  find  bearing  upon 
heredity. 

7.  In  a  similar  way,  make  a  study  of  heredity  in  your  family. 
Consider  such  characteristics  as  height,  weight,  shape  of  head, 
shape  of  nose,  hair  and  eye  color.  Can  you  find  any  evidence  of 
the  inheritance  of  mental  traits? 

8.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  Chapter  II. 

REFERENCES   FOR    CLASS   READING 

Davenport  :  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics. 
Kellicott  :   The  Social  Direction  of  Human  Evolution. 


CHAPTER   III 
MIND    AND    BODY 

Gross  Dependence.  The  relation  of  mind  to  body 
has  always  been  an  interesting  one  to  man.  This  is 
partly  because  of  the  connection  of  the  question  with 
that  of  life  after  death.  An  old  idea  of  this  relation, 
almost  universally  held  till  recently,  was  that  the  mind 
or  spirit  lived  in  the  body  but  was  more  or  less  inde- 
pendent of  the  body.  The  body  has  been  looked  upon 
as  a  hindrance  to  the  mind  or  spirit.  Science  knows 
nothing  about  the  existence  of  spirits  apart  from  bodies. 
The  belief  that  after  death  the  mind  lives  on  is  a  matter 
of  faith  and  not  of  science.  Whether  one  believes  in 
an  existence  of  the  mind  after  death  of  the  body,  de- 
pends on  one's  religious  faith.  There  is  no  scientific 
evidence  one  way  or  the  other.  The  only  mind  that 
science  knows  anything  about  is  bound  up  very  closely 
with  body.  This  is  not  saying  that  there  is  no  existence 
of  spirit  apart  from  body,  but  that  at  present  such  exist- 
ence is  beyond  the  realm  of  science. 

The  dependence  of  mind  upon  body  in  a  general  way 
is  evident  to  every  one,  upon  the  most  general  observa- 
tion and  thought.  We  know  the  effect  on  the  mind  of 
disease,  of  good  health,  of  hunger,  of  fatigue,  of  over- 
work, of  severe  bodily  injury,  of  blindness  or  deafness. 
We  have,  perhaps,  seen  some  one  struck  upon  the  head 
by  a  club,  or  run  over  by  an  automobile,  and  have  noted 

34 


Mind  and  Body  35 

the  tremendous  consequences  to  the  person's  mind. 
In  such  cases  it  sometimes  happens  that,  as  far  as  we 
can  see,  there  is  no  longer  any  mind  in  connection  with 
that  body.  The  most  casual  observation,  then,  shows 
that  mind  and  body  are  in  some  way  most  intimately 
related. 

Finer  Dependence.  Let  us  note  this  relation  more  in 
detail,  and,  in  particular,  see  just  which  part  of  the  body 
it  is  that  is  connected  with  the  mind.  First  of  all,  we 
note  the  dependence  of  mind  upon  sense  organs.  We 
see  only  with  our  eyes.  If  we  close  the  eyelids,  we 
cannot  see.  If  we  are  born  blind,  or  if  injury  or  dis- 
ease destroys  the  retinas  of  the  eyes  or  makes  the  eyes 
opaque  so  that  light  cannot  pass  through  to  the  retinas, 
then  we  cannot  see. 

Similarly,  we  hear  only  by  means  of  the  ears.  If  we 
are  born  deaf,  or  if  injury  destroys  some  important 
part  of  the  hearing  mechanism,  then  we  cannot  hear. 
In  like  manner,  we  taste  only  by  means  of  the  taste 
organs  in  the  mouth,  and  smell  only  with  the  organs  of 
smell  in  the  nose.  In  a  word,  our  primary  knowledge 
of  the  world  comes  only  through  the  sense  organs. 
We  shall  see  presently  just  how  this  sensing  or  per- 
ceiving is  accomplished. 

Dependence  of  Mind  on  Nerves  and  Brain.  We 
have  seen  how  in  a  general  way  the  mind  is  dependent 
on  the  body.  We  have  seen  how  in  a  more  intimate 
way  it  is  dependent  on  the  special  sense  organs.  But 
the  part  of  the  body  to  which  the  mind  is  most  directly 
and  intimately  related  is  the  nervous  system.  The 
sense  organs  themselves  are  merely  modifications  of  the 
nerve  ends  together  with  certain  mechanisms  for  en- 
abling stimuli  to  act  on  the  nerve  ends.  The  eye  is 
merely  the  optic  nerve  spread  out  to  form  the  retina  and 


36  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


modified  in  certain  ways  to  make  it  sensitive  to  ether 
vibrations.  In  addition  to  this,  there  is,  of  course,  the 
focusing  mechanism  of  the  eye.  So  for  all  the  sense 
•  organs ;  they  are,  each  of  them,  some  sort  of  modifica- 
tion of  nerve-endings  which  makes  them  sensitive  to 
some  particular  force  or  substance. 

Let  us  make  the  matter  clear  by  an  illustration. 
Suppose  I  see  a  picture  on  the  wall.  My  eyes  are 
directed  toward  the  picture.  Light  from  the  picture 
is  refracted  within  the  eyes,  forming  an  image  on  each 
retina.  The  retina  is  sensitive  to  the  light.  The  light 
produces  chemical  changes  on  the  retina.  These  changes 
set  up  an  excitation  in  the  optic  nerves,  which  is  con- 
ducted to  a  certain  place  in  the  brain,  causing  an  exci- 
tation in  the  brain.  Now  the  important  point  is  that 
when  this  excitation  is  going  on  in  the  brain,  we  are 
conscious,  we  see  the  picture. 

As  far  as  science  can  determine,  we  do  not  see,  nor 
hear,  nor  taste,  nor  smell,  nor  have  any  other  sensa- 
tion unless  a  sense  organ  is  excited  and  produces  the 
excitation  in  the  brain.  There  can  be  no  doubt  about 
our  primary,  sensory  experience.  By  primary,  sensory 
experience  is  meant  our  immediate,  direct  knowledge  of 
any  aspect  of  the  world.  In  this  field  of  our  conscious 
life,  we  are  entirely  dependent  upon  sense  organs  and 
nerves  and  brain.  Injuries  to  the  eyes  destroying  their 
power  to  perform  their  ordinary  work,  or  injuries  to 
the  optic  nerve  or  to  the  visual  center  in  the  brain,  make 
it  impossible  for  us  to  see. 

These  facts  are  so  self-evident  that  it  seems  useless 
to  state  them.  One  has  but  to  hold  his  hands  before 
his  eyes  to  convince  himself  that  the  mind  sees  by 
means  of  eyes,  which  are  physical  sense  organs.  One 
has  but  to  hold  his  hands  tight  over  his  ears  to  find 


Mind  and  Body  37 


out  that  he  hears  by  means  of  ears  —  again,  physical 
sense  organs. 

But  simple  and  self-evident  as  the  facts  are,  their  ac- 
ceptance must  have  tremendous  consequences  to  our 
thinking,  and  to  our  view  of  human  nature.  If  the 
mind  is  dependent  in  every  feature  on  the  body  with 
its  sense  organs,  this  must  give  to  this  body  and  its  sense 
organs  an  importance  in  our  thought  and  scheme  of 
things  that  they  did  not  have  before.  This  close 
dependence  of  mind  upon  body  must  give  to  the  body 
a  place  in  our  scheme  of  education  that  it  would  not 
have  under  any  other  view  of  the  mind.  We  wish  to 
emphasize  here  that  this  statement  of  the  close  relation 
of  the  mind  and  body  is  not  a  theory  which  one  may 
accept  or  not.  It  is  a  simple  statement  of  fact.  It  is 
a  presupposition  of  psychology.  By  "  presupposition  " 
is  meant  a  fundamental  principle  which  the  psychologist 
always  has  in  mind.  It  is  axiomatic,  and  has  the 
same  place  in  psychology  that  axioms  have  in  mathe- 
matics. All  explanations  of  the  working  of  the  mind 
must  be  stated  in  terms  of  nerve  and  brain  action,  and 
stimulation  of  sense  organs. 

Since  the  sense  organs  are  the  primary  and  funda- 
mental organs  through  which  we  get  experience,  and 
since  the  sensations  are  the  elementary  experiences  out 
of  which  all  mental  life  is  built,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
have  a  clear  idea  of  the  sense  organs,  their  structure  and 
functions,  and  of  the  nature  of  sensations. 

Vision.  The  Visual  Sense  Organs.  The  details  of  the 
anatomy  of  the  eye  can  be  looked  up  in  a  physiological 
textbook.  The  essential  principles  are  very  simple. 
The  eye  is  made  on  the  principle  of  a  photographer's 
camera.  The  retina  corresponds  to  the  sensitive  plate 
of  the  camera.     The  light  coming  from  objects  toward 


38  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

which  the  eyes  are  directed  is  focused  on  the  retina, 
forming  there  an  image  of  the  object.  The  light  thus 
focused  on  the  retina  sets  up  a  chemical  change  in  the 
delicate  nerve  tissue ;  this  excitation  is  transmitted 
through  the  optic  nerve  to  the  occipital  (back)  part  of 
the  brain,  and  sets  up  brain  action  there.  Then  we 
have  visual  sensation ;   we  see  the  object. 

The  different  colors  that  we  see  are  dependent  upon 
the  vibration  frequency  of  the  ether.  The  higher 
frequencies  give  us  the  colors  blue  and  green,  and  the 
lower  frequencies  give  us  the  colors  yellow  and  red. 
The  intermediate  frequencies  give  us  the  intermediate 
colors  blue-green  and  orange.  By  vibration  frequencies 
is  meant  the  rate  at  which  the  ether  vibrates,  the  number 
of  vibrations  a  second.  If  the  reader  wishes  to  know 
something  about  these  frequencies,  such  information  can 
be  found  in  a  textbook  on  physics. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  vibration  rates  of  the  ether 
are  very  great.  It  is  only  within  a  certain  range  of 
vibration  frequency  that  sunlight  affects  the  retina. 
Slower  rates  of  vibration  than  that  producing  red  do 
not  affect  the  eye,  and  faster  than  that  producing 
violet  do  not  affect  the  eye.  The  lightness  and  dark- 
ness of  a  color  are  dependent  upon  the  intensity  of 
the  vibration.  Red,  for  example,  is  produced  by  a 
certain  vibration  frequency.  The  more  intense  the 
vibration,  the  brighter  the  red ;  the  less  intense,  the 
darker  the  red. 

When  all  the  vibration  frequencies  affect  the  eyes 
at  the  same  time,  we  see  no  color  at  all  but  only 
brightness.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  certain  vibra- 
tion frequencies  neutralize  each  other  in  their  effect 
on  the  retina,  so  far  as  producing  color  is  concerned. 
Red  neutralizes  green,  blue  neutralizes  yellow,  violet 


Mind  and  Body  39 


neutralizes  yellowish  green,  orange  neutralizes  bluish 
green. 

All  variations  in  vision  as  far  as  color  and  brightness 
are  concerned  are  due  to  variations  in  the  stimulus. 
Changes  in  vibration  frequency  give  the  different  colors. 
Changes  in  intensity  give  the  different  brightnesses : 
black,  gray,  and  white.  All  explanations  of  the  many 
interesting  phenomena  of  vision  are  to  be  sought  in  the 
physiological  action  of  the  eye. 

Besides  the  facts  of  color  and  light  and  shade,  already 
mentioned,  some  further  interesting  visual  phenomena 
may  be  mentioned  here, 

Visual  Contrast.  Every  color  makes  objects  near  it 
take  on  the  antagonistic  or  complementary  color. 
Red  makes  objects  near  appear  green,  green  makes  them 
appear  red.  Blue  makes  near  objects  appear  yellow, 
while  yellow  makes  them  appear  blue.  Orange  in- 
duces greenish  blue,  and  greenish  blue  induces  orange. 
Violet  induces  yellowish  green,  and  yellowish  green  in- 
duces violet.  These  color-pairs  are  known  as  antago- 
nistic or  complementary  colors.  Each  one  of  a  pair 
enhances  the  effect  of  its  complementary  when  the  two 
colors  are  brought  close  together.  In  a  similar  way, 
light  and  dark  tints  act  as  complementaries.  Light 
objects  make  dark  objects  near  appear  darker,  and  dark 
objects  make  light  objects  near  seem  lighter. 

These  universal  principles  of  contrast  are  of  much 
practical  significance.  They  must  be  taken  account  of 
in  all  arrangements  of  colors  and  tints,  for  example, 
in  dress,  in  the  arrangement  of  flowers  and  shrubs,  in 
painting. 

Color-Mixture.  If,  on  a  rotating  motor,  disks  of 
different  colors  —  say  red  and  yellow  -  -  are  placed  and 
rotated,  one  sees  on  looking  at  them  not  red  or  yellow 


40  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


but  orange.  This  phenomenon  is  known  as  color- 
mixture.  The  result  is  due  to  the  simultaneous  stimula- 
tion of  the  retina  by  two  kinds  of  ether  vibration.  If 
the  colors  used  are  a  certain  red  and  a  certain  green, 
they  neutralize  each  other  and  produce  only  gray. 
All  the  pairs  of  complementary  colors  mentioned  above 
act  in  the  same  way,  producing,  if  mixed  in  the  right 
proportion,  no  color,  but  gray.  If  colored  disks  not 
complementary  are  mixed  by  rotation  on  a  motor,  they 
produce  an  intermediate  color.  Red  and  yellow  give 
orange.  Blue  and  green  give  bluish  green.  Yellow 
and  green  give  yellowish  green.  Red  and  blue  give 
violet  or  purple,  depending  on  the  proportion.  Mixing 
pigments  gives,  in  general,  the  same  results  as  mixing 
by  means  of  rotating  the  disks.  The  ordinary  blue  and 
yellow  pigments  give  green  when  mixed,  because  each 
of  the  two  pigments  contains  green.  The  blue  and 
yellow  neutralize  each  other,  leaving  green. 

Visual  After-images.  The  stimulation  of  the  retina 
has  interesting  after  effects.  We  shall  mention  here 
only  the  one  known  as  negative  after-images.  If  one  will 
place  on  the  table  a  sheet  of  white  paper,  and  on  this 
white  paper  lay  a  small  piece  of  colored  paper,  and  if 
he  will  then  gaze  steadily  at  the  colored  paper  for  a 
half-minute,  it  will  be  found  that  if  the  colored  paper 
is  removed  one  sees  its  complementary  color.  If  the 
head  is  not  moved,  this  complementary  color  has  the 
same  size  and  shape  as  the  original  colored  piece  of 
paper.  The  negative  after-image  can  be  projected 
on  a  background  at  different  distances,  its  size  de- 
pending on  the  distance  of  the  background.  The  after- 
image will  be  found  to  mix  with  an  objective  color 
in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  color-mixture 
mentioned  above. 


Mind  and  Body  41 

After-image  phenomena  have  some  practical  conse- 
quences. If  one  has  been  looking  at  a  certain  color  for 
some  time,  a  half-minute  or  more,  then  looks  at  some 
other  color,  the  after-image  of  the  first  color  mixes  with 
the  second  color. 

Adaptation.  The  fact  last  mentioned  leads  us  to  the 
subject  of  adaptation.  If  the  eyes  are  stimulated  by 
the  same  kind  of  light  for  some  time,  the  eyes  become 
adapted  to  that  light.  If  the  light  is  yellow,  at  first 
objects  seem  yellow,  but  after  a  time  they  look  as  if 
they  were  illuminated  with  white  light,  losing  the 
yellow  aspect.  But  if  one  then  goes  out  into  white 
light,  everything  looks  bluish.  The  negative  after- 
image of  the  yellow  being  cast  upon  everything  makes 
the  surroundings  look  blue,  for  the  after-image  of  yellow 
is  blue.  All  the  other  colors  act  in  a  similar  way,  as  do 
also  black  and  white.  If  one  has  been  for  some  time  in 
a  dark  room  and  then  goes  out  to  a  lighter  place,  it  seems 
unusually  light.  And  if  one  goes  from  the  light  to  a 
dark  room,  it  seems  unusually  dark. 

Hearing  or  Audition.  Just  as  the  eye  is  an  organ 
sensitive  to  certain  frequencies  of  ether  vibration,  so 
the  ear  is  an  organ  sensitive  to  certain  air  vibrations. 
The  reader  should  familiarize  himself  with  the  physiol- 
ogy of  the  ear  by  reference  to  physiologies.  The  drum- 
skin,  the  three  little  bones  of  the  middle  ear,  and  the 
cochlea  of  the  inner  ear  are  all  merely  mechanical 
means  of  making  possible  the  stimulation  of  the 
specialized  endings  of  the  auditory  nerve  by  vibra- 
tions of  air. 

As  the  different  colors  are  due  to  different  vibration 
frequencies  of  the  ether,  so  different  pitches  of  sound 
are  due  to  differences  in  the  rates  of  the  air  vibrations. 
The  low  bass  notes  are  produced  by  the  low  vibration 


42  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

frequencies.  The  high  notes  are  produced  by  the  high 
vibration  frequencies.  The  lowest  notes  that  we  can 
hear  are  produced  by  about  twenty  vibrations  a  second, 
and  the  highest  by  about  forty  thousand  vibrations  a 
second. 

Other  Sense  Organs.  We  need  not  give  a  detailed 
statement  of  the  facts  concerning  the  other  senses.  In 
each  case  the  sense  organ  is  some  special  adaptation  of 
the  nerve-endings  with  appropriate  apparatus  in  con- 
nection to  enable  it  to  be  affected  by  some  special 
thing  or  force  in  the  environment. 

In  the  case  of  taste,  we  find  in  the  mouth,  chiefly  on 
the  back  and  edges  of  the  tongue,  organs  sensitive  to 
sweet,  sour,  salt,  and  bitter.  In  the  nose  we  have  an 
organ  that  is  sensitive  to  the  tiny  particles  of  substances 
that  float  in  the  air  which  we  breathe  in  through  the 
nose. 

In  the  skin  we  find  several  kinds  of  sense  organs  that 
give  us  the  sensations  of  cold  and  warmth,  of  pressure 
and  pain.  These  are  all  special  and  definite  sensations 
produced  by  different  kinds  of  organs.  The  sense  of 
warmth  is  produced  by  different  organs  from  those 
which  produce  the  sense  of  cold.  These  organs  can  be 
detected  and  localized  on  the  skin.  So,  also,  pain  and 
touch  or  pressure  have  each  its  particular  organ. 

Within  the  body  itself  we  have  sense  organs  also,  par- 
ticularly in  the  joints  and  tendons  and  in  the  muscles. 
These  give  us  the  sensations  which  are  the  basis  of  our 
perception  of  motion,  and  of  the  position  of  the  body  and 
its  members.  In  the  semicircular  canals  of  the  inner  ear 
are  organs  that  give  us  the  sense  of  dizziness,  and  enable 
us  to  maintain  our  equilibrium  and  to  know  up  from 
down. 

The  general  nature  of  the  sense  organs  and  of  sensa- 


Mind  and  Body  43 


tion  should  now  be  apparent.  The  nervous  system 
reaches  out  its  myriad  fingers  to  every  portion  of  the 
surface  of  the  body,  and  within  the  body  as  well.  These 
nerve-endings  are  specially  adapted  to  receive  each  its 
particular  form  of  stimulation.  This  stimulation  of 
our  sense  organs  is  the  basis  or  cause  of  our  sensations. 
And  our  sensations  are  the  elementary  stuff  of  all  our 
experience.  Whatever  thoughts  we  have,  whatever 
ideas  or  images  we  have,  they  come  originally  from  our 
sensations.  They  are  built  up  out  of  our  sensations  or 
from  these  sensations  as  they  exist  in  memory. 

Defects  of  Sense  Organs.  The  organs  of  sight  and 
hearing  are  now  by  far  the  most  important  of  our  sense 
organs.  They  enable  us  to  sense  things  that  are  at  a 
distance.  We  shall  therefore  discuss  defects  of  these 
two  organs  only.  Since  sensations  are  the  primary 
stuff  out  of  which  mind  is  made,  and  since  sight  and 
hearing  are  the  most  important  sense  organs,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  our  lives  are  very  much  dependent  on  these 
organs.  If  they  cannot  do  their  work  well,  then  we  are 
handicapped.     And  this  is  often  the  case. 

The  making  of  the  human  eye  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  achievements  of  nature.  But  the  making 
of  a  perfect  eye  is  too  big  a  task  for  nature.  She  never 
makes  a  perfect  eye.  There  is  always  some  defect, 
large  or  small.  To  take  plastic  material  and  make 
lenses  and  shutters  and  curtains  is  a  great  task.  The 
curvature  of  the  front  of  the  eye  and  of  the  front  and 
back  of  the  crystalline  lens  is  never  quite  perfect,  but 
in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  nearly  enough  perfect  to 
give  us  good  vision.  However,  in  about  one  third  of 
school  children  the  defect  is  great  enough  to  need  to 
be  corrected  by  glasses. 

The  principle  of  the  correction  of  sight  by  means  of 


44  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


glasses  is  merely  this :  l  When  the  focusing  apparatus 
of  the  eye  is  not  perfect,  it  can  be  made  so  by  putting 
in  front  of  the  eye  the  proper  kind  of  lens.  There  is 
nothing  strange  or  mysterious  about  it.  In  some  cases, 
the  eye  focuses  the  light  before  it  reaches  the  retina. 
Such  cases  are  known  as  nearsightedness  and  are  cor- 
rected by  having  placed  in  front  of  the  eyes  concave 
lenses  of  the  proper  strength.  These  lenses  diverge  the 
rays  and  make  them  focus  on  the  retina.  In  other 
cases,  the  eye  is  not  able  to  focus  the  rays  by  the  time 
they  reach  the  retina.  In  these  cases,  the  eyes  need  the 
help  of  convex  lenses  of  the  proper  strength  to  make 
the  focus  fall  exactly  on  the  retina. 

Another  defect  of  the  eye,  known  as  astigmatism,  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  eye  does  not  always  have  a 
perfectly  spherical  front  (cornea).  The  curvature  in 
one  direction  is  different  from  that  in  others.  For 
example,  the  vertical  curvature  may  be  more  convex 
than  the  horizontal.  Such  a  condition  produces  a 
serious  defect  of  vision.  It  can  be  corrected  by  means 
of  cylindrical  lenses  of  the  proper  strength  so  placed 
before  the  eye  as  to  correct  the  defect  in  curvature. 

Still  another  defect  of  vision  is  known  as  presbyopia 
or  farsightedness  due  to  old  age.  It  has  the  following 
explanation:  In  early  life,  when  we  look  at  near 
objects,  the  crystalline  lens  automatically  becomes 
thicker,  more  convex.  This  adjustment  brings  the 
rays  to  a  focus  on  the  retina,  which  is  required  for  good 
vision.  As  we  get  old,  the  crystalline  lens  loses  its 
power  to  change  its  adjustment  for  near  objects,  al- 

1  The  teacher  should  explain  these  principles  and  illustrate  by- 
drawings.  Consult  a  good  text  in  physiology.  Noyes'  University 
of  Missouri  Extension  Bulletin  on  eye  and  ear  defects  will  be 
found  most  useful. 


Mind  and  Body  45 

though  the  eye  may  see  at  a  distance  as  well  as  ever. 
The  old  person,  therefore,  must  wear  convex  glasses 
when  looking  at  near  objects,  as  in  reading  and  sewing. 

Another  visual  defect  of  a  different  nature  is  known 
as  partial  color  blindness.  The  defects  described 
above  are  due  to  misshapen  eyes.  Partial  color  blind- 
ness is  due  to  a  defect  of  the  retina  which  makes 
it  unable  to  be  affected  by  light  waves  producing  red 
and  green.  A  person  with  this  defect  confuses  red 
and  green.  While  only  a  small  percentage  of  the  popu- 
lation has  this  defect,  it  is  nevertheless  very  impor- 
tant that  those  having  it  be  detected.  People  hav- 
ing the  defect  should  not  be  allowed  to  enter  occupations 
in  which  the  seeing  of  red  and  green  is  important.  It 
was  recently  brought  to  the  author's  attention  that  a 
partially  color-blind  man  was  selling  stamps  in  a  post 
office.  Since  two  denominations  of  stamps  are  dis- 
tinguished by  red  and  green  colors,  this  man  made 
frequent  mistakes.  He  was  doing  one  of  the  things  for 
which  he  was  specially  unfitted.  It  is  easy  to  detect 
color  blindness  by  simple  tests. 

So  great  is  the  importance  of  good  vision  in  school 
work  and  the  later  work  of  life,  that  every  teacher 
should  know  how  to  make  simple  tests  to  determine 
visual  defects.  Children  showing  any  symptoms  of 
eyestrain  should  be  required  to  have  their  visual  defects 
corrected  by  a  competent  oculist,  and  should  be  warned 
not  to  have  the  correction  made  by  a  quack.  There 
is  great  popular  ignorance  and  even  prejudice  concern- 
ing visual  defects,  and  it  is  very  important  that  teachers 
have  a  clear  understanding  of  the  facts. 

Defects  of  Hearing.  Hearing  defects  are  only  about 
half  as  frequent  as  those  of  sight.  They  are  nearly  all 
due  to  catarrhal  infection  of  the  middle  ear  through 


46  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

the  Eustachian  tube.  The  careful  and  frequent  medical 
examination  of  school  children  cannot,  therefore,  be  too 
strongly  emphasized.  The  deafness  or  partial  deafness 
that  comes  from  this  catarrhal  infection  can  seldom 
be  cured ;  it  must  be  prevented  by  the  early  treatment 
of  the  troubles  which  cause  it. 

Summary.  The  mind  is  closely  related  to  the  body.  Especially 
is  it  dependent  upon  the  brain,  nerves,  and  sense  organs.  The 
sense  organs  are  special  adaptations  of  the  nerve-ends  for  receiving 
impressions.  Each  sense  organ  receives  only  its  particular  type 
of  impression. 

The  main  visual  phenomena  are  those  of  color-mixture,  after- 
images, adaptation,  and  contrast.  Since  sensation  is  the  basis 
of  mental  life,  defects  of  the  sense  organs  are  serious  handicaps 
and  should  be  corrected  if  possible.  Visual  defects  are  usually 
due  to  a  misshapen  eyeball  and  can  be  corrected  by  proper  glasses, 
which  should  be  fitted  by  an  oculist.  Hearing  defects  usually 
arise  from  catarrhal  trouble  in  the  middle  ear. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Make  a  study  of  the  relation  of  the  mind  to  the  body. 
Enumerate  the  different  lines  of  evidence  which  you  may  find 
indicating  their  close  relationship. 

2.  Can  you  find  any  evidence  tending  to  show  that  the  mind 
is  independent  of  the  body? 

3.  Color-Mixture.  Colored  disks  can  be  procured  from  C.  H. 
Stoelting  Company,  Chicago.  If  a  small  motor  is  available, 
the  disks  can  be  rotated  on  the  motor  and  the  colors  mixed.  Mix 
pairs  of  complementary  colors,  also  pairs  of  non-complementary 
colors,  and  note  the  result.  A  simple  device  can  be  made  for  mix- 
ing colors,  as  follows :  On  a  board  stand  a  pane  of  glass.  On  one 
side  of  the  glass  put  a  colored  paper  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
glass  put  a  different  color.  By  looking  through  the  glass  you  can 
see  one  color  through  transmitted  light  and  the  other  color  through 
reflected  light.  By  inclining  the  glass  at  different  angles  you  can 
get  different  proportions  of  the  mixture,  now  more  of  one  color, 
now  more  of  the  other. 


Mind  and  Body  47 

4.  Negative  After-images.  Cut  out  pieces  of  colored  paper  a 
half  inch  square.  Put  one  of  these  on  a  white  background  on  the 
table.  With  elbows  on  the  table,  hold  the  head  in  the  hands  and 
gaze  at  the  colored  paper  for  about  a  half-minute,  then  blow  the 
paper  away  and  continue  to  gaze  at  the  white  background.  Note 
the  color  that  appears.  Use  different  colors  and  tabulate  the 
results.  Try  projecting  the  after-images  at  different  distances. 
Project  the  after-images  on  different  colored  papers.  Do  the 
after-images  mix  with  the  colors  of  the  papers? 

5.  An  interesting  experiment  with  positive  after-images  can 
be  performed  as  follows :  Shut  yourself  in  a  dark  closet  for  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes  to  remove  all  trace  of  stimulation  of  the  retina. 
With  the  eyes  covered  with  several  folds  of  thick  black  cloth  go  to 
a  window,  uncover  the  eyes  and  take  a  momentary  look  at  the 
landscape,  immediately  covering  the  eyes  again.  The  landscape 
will  appear  as  a  positive  after-image,  with  the  positive  colors  and 
lights  and  shades.  The  experiment  is  best  performed  on  a  bright 
day. 

6.  Adaptation.  Put  on  colored  glasses  or  hold  before  the 
eyes  a  large  piece  of  colored  glass.  Note  that  at  first  everything 
takes  on  the  color  of  the  glass.  What  change  comes  over  objects 
after  the  glasses  have  been  worn  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes? 
Describe  your  experience  after  removing  the  glasses.  Plan  and 
perform  other  experiments  showing  adaptation.  For  illustration, 
go  from  a  very  bright  room  into  a  dark  room.  Go  from  a  very 
dark  room  to  a  light  one.     Describe  your  experience. 

7.  Contrast.  Take  a  medium  gray  paper  and  lay  it  on  white 
and  various  shades  of  gray  and  black  paper.  Describe  and  ex- 
plain what  you  find. 

8.  Color  Contrast.  Darken  a  room  by  covering  all  the  windows 
except  one  window  pane.  Cover  it  with  cardboard.  In  the  card- 
board cut  two  windows  six  inches  long  and  one  inch  wide.  Over 
one  window  put  colored  glass  or  any  other  colored  material  through 
which  some  light  will  pass.  By  holding  up  a  pencil  you  can  cast 
two  shadows  on  a  piece  of  paper.  What  color  are  the  shadows? 
One  is  a  contrast  color  induced  by  the  other;  which  one?  Ex- 
plain the  results. 

9.  Make  a  study  of  the  way  in  which  women  dress.  What  do 
you  learn  about  color  effects? 

10.   From  the  Stoelting  Company  you  can  obtain  the  Holmgren 
worsteds  for  studying  color  blindness. 


48  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

11.  Defective  Vision.  Procure  a  Snellen's  test  chart  and  deter- 
mine the  visual  acuity  of  the  members  of  the  class.  Seat  the 
subject  twenty  feet  from  the  chart,  which  should  be  placed  in  a 
good  light.  While  testing  one  eye,  cover  the  other  with  a  piece 
of  cardboard.  Above  each  row  of  letters  on  the  chart  is  a  number 
which  indicates  the  distance  at  which  it  can  be  read  by  a  normal 
eye.  If  the  subject  can  read  only  the  thirty-foot  line,  his  vision 
is  said  to  be  f  § ;  if  only  the  forty-foot  line,  the  vision  is  §£.  If  the 
subject  can  read  above  the  twenty-foot  line  and  complains  of  head- 
ache from  reading,  farsightedness  is  indicated.  If  the  subject  can- 
not read  up  to  the  twenty-foot  line,  nearsightedness  or  astigmatism 
is  indicated. 

12.  Hearing.  By  consultation  with  the  teacher  of  physics, 
plan  an  experiment  to  show  that  the  pitch  of  tones  depends  on 
vibration  frequency.  Such  an  experiment  can  be  very  simply 
performed  by  rotating  a  wheel  having  spokes.  Hold  a  light  stick 
against  the  spokes  so  that  it  strikes  each  spoke.  If  the  wheel  is 
rotated  so  as  to  give  twenty  or  thirty  strokes  a  second,  a  very  low 
tone  will  be  heard.  By  rotating  the  wheel  faster  you  get  a  higher 
tone.     Other  similar  experiments  can  be  performed. 

13.  Acuity  of  hearing  can  be  tested  by  finding  the  distance  at 
which  the  various  members  of  the  class  can  hear  a  watch-tick. 
The  teacher  can  plan  an  experiment  using  whispering  instead  of 
the  watch-tick.  (See  the  author's  Examination  of  School  Chil- 
dren.) 

14.  By  using  the  point  of  a  nail,  one  can  find  the  "cold  spots" 
on  the  skin.  Warm  the  nail  to  about  40  degrees  Centigrade  and 
you  can  find  the  "  warm  spots." 

15.  By  touching  the  hairs  on  the  back  of  the  hand,  you  can 
stimulate  the  "pressure  spots." 

16.  By  pricking  the  skin  with  the  point  of  a  needle,  you  can 
stimulate  the  "pain  spots." 

17.  The  sense  of  taste  is  sensitive  only  to  solutions  that  are 
sweet,  sour,  salt,  or  bitter.  Plan  experiments  to  verify  this  point.  . 
What  we  call  the  "taste"  of  many  things  is  due  chiefly  to  odor. 
Therefore  in  experiments  with  taste,  the  nostrils  should  be  stopped 
up  with  cotton.  It  will  be  found,  for  example,  that  quinine  and 
coffee  are  indistinguishable  if  their  odors  be  eliminated  by  stopping 
the  nose.  The  student  should  compare  the  taste  of  many  sub- 
stances put  into  the  mouth  with  the  nostrils  open  with  the  taste , 
of  the  same  substances  with  the  nostrils  closed. 


Mind  and  Body  49 


REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS    READING 

Colvin  AND  Bagley  :   Human  Behavior,  Chapters  VII  and  XII. 
Munsterberg  :   Psychology,  General  and  Applied,  Chapters  III, 

IV,  VI,  and  VII. 
Pillsbury  :    Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chapters  II,  III,  and  IV. 
Pyle  :    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  Chapter  II. 
Titchener:   A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapter  I,  par.  3;    also 

Chapter  II. 


CHAPTER   IV 
INHERITED    TENDENCIES 

Stimulus  and  Response.  We  have  learned  something 
about  the  sense  organs  and  their  functions.  We  have 
seen  that  it  is  through  the  sense  organs  that  the  world 
affects  us,  stimulates  us.  And  we  have  said  that  we 
are  stimulated  in  order  that  we  may  respond. 

We  must  now  inquire  into  the  nature  of  our  responses. 
We  are  moving,  active  beings.  But  how  do  we  move, 
how  do  we  act  when  stimulated?  Why  do  we  do  one 
thing  rather  than  another?  Why  do  we  do  one  thing 
at  one  time  and  a  different  thing  at  another  time  ? 

Before  we  answer  these  questions  it  will  be  necessary 
for  us  to  get  a  more  definite  and  complete  idea  of  the 
nature  of  stimulus  and  response.  We  have  already  used 
these  terms,  but  we  must  now  give  a  more  definite  ac- 
count of  them.  It  was  said  in  the  preceding  chapter 
that  when  a  muscle  contracts,  it  must  first  receive  a 
nerve-impulse.  Now,  anything  which  starts  this  nerve- 
impulse  is  called  the  stimulus.  The  muscular  move- 
ment which  follows  is,  of  course,  the  response.  The 
nervous  system  forms  the  connection  between  the 
stimulus  and  response. 

The  stimulus  which  brings  about  a  response  may  be 
very  simple.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  very 
complex.  If  one  blows  upon  the  eyelids  of  a  baby, 
the  lids  automatically  close.    The  blowing  is  the  stimu- 

50 


Inherited  Tendencies  51 


lus  and  the  closing  of  the  lids  is  the  response.  Both 
stimulus  and  response  are  here  very  simple. 

But  sometimes  the  stimulus  is  more  complex,  not 
merely  the  simple  excitation  of  one  sense  organ,  but  a 
complicated  stimulation  of  an  organ,  or  the  simulta- 
neous stimulation  of  several  organs.  In  playing  ball, 
the  stimulus  for  the  batter  is  the  on-coming  ball.  The 
response  is  the  stroke.  This  case  is  much  more  complex 
than  the  reflex  closing  of  the  eyelids.  The  ball  may 
be  pitched  in  many  different  ways  and  the  response 
changes  with  these  variations. 

In  piano  playing,  the  stimulus  is  the  notes  written  in 
their  particular  places  on  the  staff.  Not  only  must  the 
position  of  the  notes  on  the  staff  be  taken  into  account, 
but  also  many  other  things,  such  as  sharps  and  flats, 
and  various  characters  which  give  directions  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  music  is  to  be  played.  The  strik- 
ing of  the  notes  in  the  proper  order,  in  the  proper  time, 
and  with  the  proper  force,  is  the  response. 

In  typewriting,  the  stimulus  is  the  copy,  or  the  idea 
of  what  is  to  be  written,  and  the  response  is  the  striking 
of  the  keys  in  the  proper  order.  Speaking  generally, 
we  may  say  that  the  stimulus  is  the  force  or  forces  which 
excite  the  sense  organs,  and  thereby,  through  the  nerv- 
ous system,  bring  about  a  muscular  response. 

This  is  the  ordinary  type  of  action,  but  we  have  al- 
ready indicated  a  different  type.  In  speaking  of  type- 
writing we  said  the  stimulus  might  be  either  the  copy 
or  ideas.  One  can  write  from  copy  or  dictation,  in 
which  the  stimulus  is  the  written  or  spoken  word,  but 
one  can  also  write  as  one  thinks  of  what  one  wishes 
to  write.  The  latter  is  known  as  centralhj  initiated 
action.  That  is  to  say,  the  stimulus  comes  from  within, 
in  the  brain,  rather  than  from  without. 


52  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


Let  us  explain  this  kind  of  stimulation  a  little  further. 
Suppose  I  am  sitting  in  my  chair  reading.  I  finish  a 
chapter  and  look  at  my  watch.  I  notice  that  it  is  three 
o'clock,  and  recall  that  I  was  to  meet  a  friend  at  that 
time.  The  stimulus  in  this  case  is  in  the  brain  itself ; 
it  is  the  nervous  activity  which  corresponds  to  the  idea 
of  meeting  my  friend.  If  we  disregard  the  distinction 
between  mind  and  body,  we  may  say  that  the  stimulus 
for  a  response  may  be  an  idea  as  well  as  a  perception, 
the  perception  arising  from  the  immediate  stimulation 
of  a  sense  organ,  and  the  idea  arising  from  an  excitation 
of  the  brain  not  caused  by  an  immediate  stimulation 
of  a  sense  organ. 

Instincts  and  Habits.  In  human  action  it  is  evident 
that  there  is  always  a  stimulus  to  start  the  nerve- 
impulse  which  causes  the  action.  If  we  make  inquiry 
concerning  the  connection  between  the  stimulus  and 
response ;  if  we  ask  how  it  has  come  about  that  a  par- 
ticular stimulus  causes  a  particular  response  rather  than 
some  other  possible  response,  we  find  two  kinds  of  causes. 
In  one  case  the  causal  connection  is  established  through 
heredity ;  in  the  other,  the  causal  connection  is  estab- 
lished during  a  person's  lifetime  through  training. 

A  chicken,  for  example,  hides  under  some  cover  the 
first  time  it  hears  the  cry  of  a  hawk;  it  scratches 
the  first  time  its  feet  touch  sand  or  gravel ;  it  pecks  the 
first  time  it  sees  an  insect  near  by.  An  infant  closes 
its  eyes  the  first  time  it  feels  cold  wind  blow  upon 
them ;  it  cries  the  first  time  it  feels  pain ;  it  clasps 
its  fingers  together  the  first  time  a  touch  is  felt  inside 
them.  The  child's  nervous  system  is  so  organized 
that,  in  each  of  the  cases  named,  the  stimulus  brings 
forth  the  particular,  definite  response.  These  acts  do 
not  have  to  be  learned. 


Inherited  Tendencies  53 

But  it  is  quite  different  in  typewriting  and  piano 
playing.  One  must  learn  what  keys  on  the  piano  to 
strike  in  response  to  the  various  situations  of  the  notes 
as  written  in  the  music.  One  must  also  learn  the  keys 
on  the  typewriter  before  he  can  operate  a  typewriter. 
And  in  the  case  of  other  habits,  we  find,  for  example, 
that  one  does  not  respond  by  saying  "  81 "  for  9  times 
9 ;  nor  "  13  "  for  6  plus  7 ;  nor  "  8  "  for  15  minus  7 ; 
nor  "  8  "  for  the  square  root  of  64 ;  nor  "  144  "  for  the 
square  of  12,  etc.,  until  one  has  learned  in  each  case. 

Some  connections  between  stimulus  and  response  we 
have  through  inheritance ;  all  others  are  built  up  and 
established  in  one's  lifetime,  particularly  in  the  first 
thirty  years  of  one's  life. 

We  have  spoken  of  bonds  between  stimulus  and 
response,  but  have  not  explained  just  what  can  be 
meant  by  a  bond.  In  what  sense  are  stimulus  and  re- 
sponse bound  together?  A  bond  is  a  matter  of  greater 
permeability,  of  less  resistance  in  one  direction  through 
the  nervous  system  than  in  other  directions.  Nerves 
are  conductors  for  nerve-currents.  When  a  nerve- 
current  is  started  in  a  sense  organ,  it  passes  on  through 
the  path  of  least  resistance. 

Now,  some  nerves  are  so  organized  and  connected 
through  inheritance  as  to  offer  small  resistance.  This 
forms  a  ready-made  connection  between  stimulus  and 
response.  Muscular  responses  that  are  connected  with 
their  stimuli  through  inherited  bonds,  by  inherited 
nerve  structure,  are  called  instincts.  Those  that^ace 
connected Jby  ac^uired_bo.nds  are  called  habits.  Suck- 
ing, crying,  laughing,  are  instinctive  acts.  Adding, 
typewriting,  piano  playing,  are  habits. 

The  term  instinct  may  be  given  to  the  act  depending 
upon  inherited  structure,  an  inherited  bond,  or  it  may 


54  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


be  given  to  the  inherited  bond  itself.  Similarly,  the 
term  habit  may  be  given  to  an  act  that  we  have  had 
to  learn  or  to  the  bond  which  we  ourselves  establish 
between  response  and  stimulus.  In  this  book  we  shall 
usually  mean  by  instinct  an  action  depending  upon 
inherited  structure  and  by  habit  an  act  depending 
upon  a  bond  established  during  lifetime.  A  good  part 
of  our  early  lives  is  spent  in  building  up  bonds  between 
stimuli  and  responses.  This  establishing  of  bonds  or 
connections  is  called  learning. 

Appearance  of  Inherited  Tendencies.  Not  all  of  our 
inherited  tendencies  are  manifested  immediately  after 
birth,  nor  indeed  in  the  earliest  years  of  childhood, 
but  appear  at  different  stages  of  the  child's  growth. 
It  has  already  been  said  that  a  child,  soon  after  birth, 
will  close  its  eyelids  when  they  are  blown  upon.  The 
lids  do  not  close  at  this  time  if  one  strikes  at  them,  but 
they  will  do  this  later.  The  proper  working  of  an  in- 
stinct or  an  inherited  tendency,  then,  depends  upon  the 
child's  having  reached  a  certain  state  of  development. 

The  maturing  of  an  instinct  depends  upon  both  age 
and  use,  that  is  to  say,  upon  the  age  of  the  animal 
and  the  amount  of  use  or  exercise  that  the  instinctive 
activity  has  had.  The  most  important  factor,  however, 
seems  to  be  age.  While  our  knowledge  of  the  depend- 
ence of  an  instinct  upon  the  age  of  the  animal  is  not 
quite  so  definite  in  the  case  of  human  instincts,  the 
matter  has  been  worked  out  in  the  case  of  chickens. 

The  experiment  was  as  follows :  Chickens  were  taken 
at  the  time  of  hatching,  and  some  allowed  to  peck  from 
the  first,  while  others  were  kept  in  a  dark  room  and  not 
allowed  to  peck.  When  the  chickens  were  taken  out 
of  the  dark  room  at  the  end  of  one,  two,  three,  and  four 
days,  it  was  found  that  in  a  few  hours  they  were  peck- 


Inherited  Tendencies  55 

ing  as  well  as  those  that  had  been  pecking  from  birth. 
It  seems  probable,  if  we  may  judge  from  our  limited 
knowledge,  that  in  the  human  child,  activities  are  for 
the  most  part  dependent  upon  the  age  of  the  child,  and 
upon  the  state  of  development  of  the  nervous  system 
and  of  the  organs  of  the  body. 

Significance  of  Inherited  Tendencies.  Although 
human  nature  is  very  complex,  although  human  action 
nearly  always  has  some  element  of  habit  in  it,  never- 
theless, inborn  tendencies  are  throughout  life  powerful 
factors  in  determining  action.  This  will  at  once  be  ap- 
parent if  we  consider  how  greatly  we  are  influenced  by 
anger,  jealousy,  love,  fear,  and  competition.  Now  we 
do  not  have  to  learn  to  be  jealous,  to  hate,  to  love,  to 
be  envious,  to  fight,  or  to  fear.  These  are  emotions 
common  to  all  members  of  the  human  race,  and  their 
expression  is  an  inborn  tendency.  Throughout  life 
no  other  influences  are  so  powerful  in  determining  our 
action  as  are  these.  So,  although  most  of  our  detailed 
actions  in  life  are  habits  which  we  learn  or  acquire,  the 
fundamental  influences  which  decide  the  course  of  our 
action  are  inherited  tendencies. 

Classification  of  Instincts.  For  convenience  in  treat- 
ment the  instincts  are  grouped  in  classes.  Those  in- 
stincts most  closely  related  to  individual  survival  are 
called  individualistic  instincts.  Those  more  closely  re- 
lated to  the  survival  of  the  group  are  called  socialistic. 
Those  individualistic  tendencies  growing  out  of  periodic 
changes  of  the  environment  may  be  called  environmental 
instincts.  Those  closely  related  to  human  infancy, 
adapting  and  adjusting  the  child  to  the  world  in  which 
he  lives,  may  be  called  adaptive.  There  is  still  another 
group  of  inherited  tendencies  connected  with  sex  and 
reproduction,  which  are  not  discussed  in  this  book. 


56  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

We  shall  give  a  brief  discussion  of  the  instincts  falling 
under  these  various  classes.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  psychology  of  the  instincts  is  indefi- 
nite and  obscure.  It  is  difficult  to  bring  the  instincts 
into  the  laboratory  for  accurate  study.  For  our 
knowledge  of  the  instincts  we  are  dependent,  for  the 
most  part,  on  general  observation.  We  have  had  a  few 
careful  studies  of  the  very  earliest  years  of  childhood. 
However,  although  from  the  theoretical  point  of  view 
our  knowledge  of  the  instincts  is  incomplete,  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  be  of  considerable  practical  value. 

The  Individualistic  Instincts.  Man's  civilized  life 
has  covered  but  a  short  period  of  time,  only  a  few  hun- 
dred or  a  few  thousand  years.  His  pre-civilized  life 
doubtless  covered  a  period  of  millions  of  years.  The 
inborn  tendencies  in  us  are  such  as  were  developed  in 
the  long  period  of  savage  life.  During  all  of  man's  life 
in  the  time  before  civilization,  he  was  always  in  danger. 
He  had  many  enemies,  and  most  of  these  enemies  had 
the  advantage  of  him  in  strength  and  natural  means  of 
defense.  Unaided  by  weapons,  he  could  hardly  hold  his 
own  against  any  of  the  beasts  of  prey.  So  there  were 
developed  in  man  by  the  process  of  natural  selection 
many  inherited  responses  which  we  group  under  the 
head  of  fear  responses. 

Just  what  the  various  situations  are  that  bring  forth 
these  responses  has  never  been  carefully  worked  out. 
But  any  situation  that  suddenly  puts  an  individual  in 
danger  of  losing  his  life  brings  about  characteristic 
reactions.  The  most  characteristic  of  the  responses 
are  shown  in  connection  with  circulation  and  respira- 
tion. Both  of  these  processes  are  much  interfered  with. 
Sometimes  the  action  is  accelerated,  at  other  times  it 
is  retarded,  and  in  some  cases  the  respiratory  and  cir- 


Inherited  Tendencies  57 

culatory  organs  are  almost  paralyzed.  Also  the  small 
muscles  of  the  skin  are  made  to  contract,  producing  the 
sensation  of  the  hair  standing  on  end.  Just  what  the 
original  use  of  all  these  responses  was  it  is  difficult  now 
to  work  out,  but  doubtless  each  served  some  useful 
purpose. 

Whether  any  particular  situations  now  call  forth  in- 
herited fear  responses  in  us  is  not  definitely  established. 
But  among  lower  animals  there  are  certain  definite 
and  particular  situations  which  do  call  forth  fear  re- 
sponses. On  the  whole,  the  evidence  rather  favors  the 
idea  of  definite  fear  situations  among  children.  It 
seems  that  certain  situations  do  invariably  arouse  fear 
responses.  To  be  alone  in  the  dark,  to  be  in  a  strange 
place,  to  hear  loud  and  sudden  noises,  to  see  large, 
strange  animals  coming  in  threatening  manner,  seem 
universally  to  call  forth  fear  responses  in  children. 

However,  the  whole  situation  must  always  be  con- 
sidered. A  situation  in  which  the  father  or  mother 
is  present  is  quite  different  from  one  in  which  they 
are  both  absent.  But  it  is  certain  that  these  and  other 
fears  are  closely  related  to  the  age  and  development  of 
the  child.  In  the  earlier  years  of  infancy,  certain  fears 
are  not  present  that  are  present  later.  And  it  can  be 
demonstrated  that  the  fears  that  do  arise  as  infancy 
passes  on  are  natural  and  inherited  and  not  the  result 
of  experience. 

Few  of  the  original  causes  of  fear  now  exist.  The  orig- 
inal danger  was  from  wild  animals  chiefly.  Seldom  are 
we  now  in  such  danger.  But  of  course  this  has  been  the 
case  for  only  a  short  time.  Our  bodies  are  the  same  sort 
of  bodies  that  our  ancestors  had,  therefore  we  are  full 
of  needless  fears.  During  the  early  years  of  a  child's 
life,  wise  treatment  causes  most  of  the  fear  tendencies 


58  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

to  disappear  because  of  disuse.  On  the  other  hand,  un- 
wise treatment  may  accentuate  and  perpetuate  them, 
causing  much  misery  and  unhappiness.  Neither  the 
home  nor  the  school  should  play  upon  these  ancestral 
fears.  We  should  not  try  to  get  a  child  to  be  good  by 
frightening  him ;  nor  should  we  often  use  fear  of  pain  as 
an  incentive  to  get  a  child  to  do  his  work. 

Man  has  always  been  afraid,  but  he  has  also  always 
been  a  fighter.  He  has  always  had  to  fight  for  his  life 
against  the  lower  animals,  and  he  has  also  fought  his  fel- 
low man.  The  fighting  response  is  connected  with  the 
emotions  of  anger,  envy,  and  jealousy.  A  man  is  an- 
gered by  anything  that  interferes  with  his  life,  with  his 
purposes,  with  whatever  he  calls  his  own.  We  become 
angry  if  some  one  strikes  our  bodies,  or  attacks  our 
beliefs,  or  the  beliefs  of  our  dear  friends,  particularly 
of  our  families.  The  typical  responses  connected  with 
anger  are  such  as  faster  heart-beat,  irregular  breathing, 
congestion  of  the  blood  in  the  face  and  head,  tightening 
of  the  voluntary  muscles,  particularly  a  setting  of  the 
teeth  and  a  clinching  of  the  fists.  These  responses 
are  preparatory  to  actual  combat. 

Anger,  envy,  and  jealousy,  and  the  responses  growing 
out  of  them,  have  always  played  a  large  part  in  the  life 
of  man.  A  great  part  of  history  is  a  record  of  the 
fights  of  nations,  tribes,  and  individuals.  If  the  records 
of  wars  and  strifes,  and  the  acts  growing  out  of  envy  and 
jealousy  and  other  similar  emotions  should  be  taken 
out  of  history,  there  would  not  be  much  left.  Much 
of  literature  and  art  depict  those  actions  of  man  which 
grew  out  of  these  individualistic  aspects  of  his  nature. 
Competition,  which  is  an  aspect  of  fighting,  even  to 
the  present  day,  continues  to  be  one  of  the  main  factors 
in  business  and  in  life  generally.     Briefly,  fighting  re- 


Inherited  Tendencies  59 

sponses  growing  out  of  man's  selfishness  are  as  old  as 
man  himself,  and  the  inherited  tendencies  connected 
with  them  are  among  the  strongest  of  our  natures. 

In  the  training  of  children,  one  of  the  most  difficult 
tasks  is  to  help  them  to  get  control  over  the  fighting 
instinct  and  other  selfish  tendencies.  These  tendencies 
are  so  deeply  rooted  in  our  natures  that  it  is  hard  to  get 
control  of  them.  In  fact,  the  control  which  we  do  get 
over  them  is  always  relative.  The  best  we  can  hope 
to  do  is  to  get  control  over  our  fighting  tendencies  in 
ordinary  circumstances. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  it  would  be  good  for  us  if  the 
fighting  spirit  should  disappear  from  the  race.  It  puts 
vim  and  determination  into  the  life  of  man.  But  our 
fighting  should  not  be  directed  against  our  fellow  man. 
The  fighting  spirit  can  be  retained  and  directed  against 
evil  and  other  obstacles.  We  can  learn  to  attack  our 
tasks  in  a  fighting  spirit.  But  surely  the  time  has  come 
when  we  should  cease  fighting  against  our  neighbors. 

Social  Tendencies.  Over  against  our  fighting  tend- 
encies we  may  set  the  socialistic  tendencies.  Coopera- 
tive and  sympathetic  actions  grow  out  of  original 
nature,  just  as  truly  as  do  the  selfish  acts.  But  the  so- 
cialistic tendencies  are  not,  in  general,  as  strong  as  are 
the  individualistic  ones.  What  society  needs  is  the 
strengthening  of  the  socialistic  tendencies  by  use,  and 
a  weakening  of  at  least  some  of  the  individualistic  tend- 
encies, by  control  and  disuse. 

Socialistic  tendencies  show  themselves  in  gangs  and 
clubs  formed  by  children  and  adults.  It  is,  therefore, 
a  common  practice  now  to  speak  of  the  "  gang  "  in- 
stinct. Human  beings  are  pleased  and  content  when 
with  other  human  beings  and  not  content,  not  satisfied, 
when  alone.    Of  course  circumstances  make  a  differ- 


60  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


ence  in  the  desires  of  men,  but  the  general  original  tend- 
ency is  as  stated. 

The  gang  of  the  modern  city  has  the  following  ex- 
planation :  Boys  like  to  be  with  other  boys.  More- 
over, they  like  to  be  active ;  they  want  to  be  doing  some- 
thing. The  city  does  not  provide  proper  means  for  the 
desired  activities,  such  as  hunting,  fishing,  tramping, 
and  boating.  It  does  not  provide  experiences  with 
animals,  such  as  boys  have  on  the  farm.  Much  of  the 
boy's  day  is  spent  in  school  in  a  kind  of  work  not  at  all 
like  what  he  would  do  by  choice.  There  is  not  much 
home  life.  Usually  there  is  not  the  proper  parental 
control.  Seldom  do  the  parents  interest  themselves 
in  planning  for  the  activities  of  their  children.  The 
result  is  that  the  boys  come  together  on  the  streets 
and  form  a  club  or  gang.  Through  this  organization 
the  boy's  nature  expresses  itself.  Without  proper 
guidance  from  older  people,  this  expression  takes  a 
direction  not  good  for  the  future  character  and  use- 
fulness of  the  boy. 

The  social  life  of  children  should  be  provided  for  by 
the  school  in  cooperation  with  the  home.  The  school 
or  the  schoolroom  should  constitute  a  social  unit.  The 
teacher  with  the  parents  should  plan  the  social  life  of  the 
children.  The  actual  work  of  the  school  can  be  very 
much  socialized.  There  can  be  much  more  coopera- 
tion and  much  more  group  work  can  be  dene  in  the 
school  than  is  the  case  at  present.  And  many  other 
social  activities  can  be  organized  in  connection  with  the 
school  and  its  work.  Excursions,  pageants,  shows,  pic- 
nics, and  all  sorts  of  activities  should  be  undertaken. 

The  schoolhouse  should  be  used  by  the  community 
as  the  place  for  many  of  its  social  acts  and  performances. 
Almost  every  night,  and  throughout  the  summer  as 


Inherited  Tendencies  61 

well  as  in  the  winter,  the  people,  young  and  old,  should 
meet  at  the  school  for  some  sort  of  social  work  or  play. 
The  Boy  Scouts  should  be  brought  under  the  control  of 
the  school  to  help  fulfill  some  of  its  main  purposes. 

Environmental  Instincts.  In  this  class  there  are  at 
least  two  tendencies  which  seem  to  be  part  of  the  origi- 
nal nature  of  man;  namely,  the  wandering  and  the 
collecting  tendencies. 

Wandering.  The  long  life  that  our  ancestors  lived 
free  and  unrestrained  in  the  woods  has  left  its  effect 
within  us.  One  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  civili- 
zation has  been  to  overcome  the  inherited  tendencies 
to  roam  and  wander,  to  the  extent  that  for  the  most 
part  we  live  out  our  lives  in  one  home,  in  one  family, 
doing  often  but  one  kind  of  work  all  our  lives.  Origi- 
nally, man  had  much  more  freedom  to  come  and  go  and 
do  whatever  he  wished. 

Truancies  and  runaways  are  the  result  of  original 
tendencies  and  desires  expressing  themselves  in  spite 
of  training,  perhaps  sometimes  because  of  the  lack  of 
training.  In  childhood  and  youth  these  original  tend- 
encies should,  to  some  extent,  be  satisfied  in  legitimate 
ways.  Excursions  and  picnics  can  be  planned  both  for 
work  and  for  play.  If  the  child's  desires  and  needs  can 
be  satisfied  in  legitimate  ways,  then  he  will  not  have  to 
satisfy  them  illegitimately.  The  teaching  itself  can  be 
done  better  by  following,  to  some  extent,  the  lead  of 
the  child's  nature.  Much  early  education  consists  in 
learning  the  world.  Now,  most  of  the  world  is  out  of 
doors  and  the  child  must  go  out  to  find  it.  The  teacher 
should  make  use  of  the  natural  desires  of  the  children 
to  wander  and  explore,  as  a  means  of  educating  them. 
The  school  work  should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  much 
outdoor  work  will  need  to  be  done. 


62  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


Collecting.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  children  to  seize 
and,  if  possible,  carry  away  whatever  attracts  attention. 
This  tendency  is  the  basis  of  what  is  called  the  collect- 
ing instinct.  If  one  will  take  a  walk  with  a  child,  one  can 
observe  the  operation  of  the  collecting  tendency,  partic- 
ularly if  the  walk  is  in  the  fields  and  woods.  The  child 
will  be  observed  to  take  leaves,  flowers,  fruits,  seeds, 
nuts,  pebbles,  and  in  fact  everything  that  is  loose  or 
can  be  gotten  loose.  They  are  taken  at  first  aimlessly, 
merely  because  they  attract  attention.  The  original, 
natural  response  of  the  child  toward  that  which  attracts 
attention  is  usually  to  get  it,  get  possession  of  it  and 
take  it  along.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  such  tendencies 
were  developed  in  man.  In  his  savage  state  it  was 
highly  useful  for  him  to  do  this.  He  must  always  have 
been  on  the  lookout  for  things  which  could  be  used  as 
food  or  as  weapons.  He  had  to  do  this  to  live.  But 
one  need  not  take  a  child  to  the  woods  to  observe  this 
tendency.  One  can  go  to  the  stores.  Till  a  child  is 
trained  not  to  do  it,  he  seizes  and  takes  whatever  at- 
tracts attention. 

Just  as  the  wandering  tendencies  can  be  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  child,  so  can  the  collecting  tendencies. 
Not  only  should  the  children  make  expeditions  to  learn 
of  the  world,  but  specimens  should  be  collected  so  that 
they  can  be  used  to  form  a  museum  at  the  school  which 
will  represent  the  surrounding  locality.  Geological, 
geographical,  botanical,  and  zoological  specimens  should 
be  collected.  The  children  will  learn  much  while  mak- 
ing the  collections,  and  much  from  the  collections  after 
they  are  made. 

"  Education  could  profit  greatly  by  making  large 
demands  upon  the  collecting  instinct.  It  seems  clear 
that  in  their  childhood  is  the  time  when  children  should 


Inherited  Tendencies  63 

be  sent  forth  to  the  fields  and  woods,  to  study  what  they 
find  there  and  to  gather  specimens.  The  children 
can  form  naturalists'  clubs  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
the  natural  environment.  Such  study  should  em- 
brace rocks,  soils,  plants,  leaves,  flowers,  fruits,  and 
specimens  of  the  wood  of  the  various  trees.  Birds  and 
insects  can  be  studied  and  collected.  The  work  of  such 
a  club  would  have  a  twofold  value.  (1)  The  study  and 
collecting  acquaint  the  child  with  his  natural  environ- 
ment, and  in  doing  it,  afford  a  sphere  for  the  activity 
of  many  aspects  of  his  nature.  They  take  him  out  of 
doors  and  give  an  opportunity  for  exploring  every  nook 
and  corner  of  the  natural  environment.  The  collecting 
can  often  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  to  appeal  to  the 
group  instincts.  For  example,  the  club  could  hold 
meetings  for  exhibiting  and  studying  the  specimens, 
and  sometimes  the  actual  collecting  could  be  done  in 
groups.  (2)  The  specimens  collected  should  be  put  into 
the  school  museum,  and  the  aim  of  this  museum  should 
be  to  represent  completely  the  local  environment,  the 
natural  and  physical  environment,  and  also  the  indus- 
trial, civil,  and  social  environment.  The  museum 
should  be  completely  illustrative  of  the  child's  natural, 
physical,  and  social  surroundings.  The  museum  would 
therefore  be  educative  in  its  making,  and  when  it  is 
made,  it  would  have  immense  value  to  the  community, 
not  only  to  the  children  but  to  all  the  people.  In  this 
museum,  of  course,  should  be  found  the  minerals,  rocks, 
soils,  insects,  —  particularly  those  of  economic  impor- 
tance, —  birds,  and  also  specimens  of  the  wild  animals 
of  the  locality.  If  proper  appeal  is  made  to  the  natural 
desire  of  the  children,  this  instinct  would  soon  be  made 
of  service  in  producing  a  very  valuable  collection.  The 
school  museum  in  which  these  specimens  are  placed 


64  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

should  also  include  other  classes  of  specimens.  There 
should  be  specimens  showing  industrial  evolution,  the 
stages  of  manufacture  of  raw  material,  specimens  of 
local  historical  interest,  pictures,  documents,  books. 
The  museum  should  be  made  of  such  a  nature  that 
parents  would  go  there  nearly  as  often  as  the  children. 
The  school  should  be  for  the  instruction  of  all  the 
people  of  the  community.  It  should  be  the  experi- 
ment station,  the  library,  the  debating  club,  the  art 
gallery  for  the  whole  community."  x 

Imitation.  One  of  the  fundamental  original  traits 
of  human  nature  is  the  tendency  to  imitate.  Imita- 
tion is  not  instinctive  in  the  strict  meaning  of  the  word. 
Seeing  a  certain  act  performed  does  not,  apart  from 
training  and  experience,  serve  as  a  stimulus  to  make 
a  child  perform  a  similar  act.  Hearing  a  certain 
sound  does  not  serve  as  a  stimulus  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  same  sound.  Nevertheless,  there  is  in  the 
human  child  a  tendency  or  desire  to  do  what  it  sees 
others  doing. 

A  few  hours  spent  in  observing  children  ought  to  con- 
vince any  one  of  the  universality  and  of  the  strength 
of  this  tendency.  As  our  experience  becomes  organ- 
ized, the  idea  of  an  act  usually  serves  as  the  stimulus  to 
call  it  forth.  However,  this  is  not  because  the  idea  of 
an  act,  of  necessity,  always  produces  the  act.  It  is 
merely  a  matter  of  the  stimulus  and  the  response 
becoming  connected  in  that  way  as  the  result  of  experience. 
Our  meaning  is  that  an  act  can  be  touched  off  or 
prompted  by  any  stimulus.  Our  nervous  organization 
makes  this  possible.  The  particular  stimulus  that  calls 
forth  a  particular  response  depends  upon  how  we  have 
been  trained,  how  we  have  learned.     In  most  cases  our 

1  Pyle's  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  pp.  84-86. 


Inherited  Tendencies  65 

acts  are  coupled  up  with  the  ideas  of  the  acts.  We 
learn  them  that  way. 

In  early  life  particularly,  the  connection  between 
stimulus  and  response  is  very  close.  When  a  child 
gets  the  idea  of  an  act,  he  immediately  performs  the 
act,  if  he  knows  how.  Now,  seeing  another  perform 
an  act  brings  the  act  clearly  into  the  child's  conscious- 
ness, and  he  proceeds  to  perform  it.  But  the  act  must 
be  one  which  the  child  already  knows  how  to  perform, 
otherwise  his  performance  of  it  will  be  faulty  and  in- 
complete. If  he  has  never  performed  the  particular 
act,  seeing  another  perform  the  act  sets  him  to  trying 
to  do  it  and  he  may  soon  learn  it.  If  he  successfully 
performs  an  act  when  he  sees  it  done  by  another,  the 
act  must  be  one  which  he  already  knows  how  to  per- 
form, and  for  whose  performance  the  idea  has  already 
served  as  a  stimulus.  Now  if  imitation  were  instinc- 
tive in  the  strict  sense,  one  could  perform  the  act  for 
the  first  time  merely  from  seeing  another  do  it,  without 
any  previous  experience  or  learning.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  there  are  any  such  inherited  connections.  It 
is,  however,  true  that  human  beings  are  of  such  a  na- 
ture that,  particularly  in  early  life,  they  like  to  do  and 
want  to  do  what  they  see  others  doing.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  important  aspects  of  human  nature,  as  we  shall 
see. 

Function  and  Importance  of  Imitation  in  Life.  Nat- 
ural selection  has  developed  few  aspects  of  human  na- 
ture so  important  for  survival  as  the  tendency  to  imi- 
tate, for  this  tendency  quickly  leads  to  a  successful 
adjustment  of  the  child  to  the  world  in  which  he  lives. 
Adult  men  and  women  are  successfully  adjusted  to 
their  environment.  Their  adjustment  might  be  better, 
but  it  is  good  enough  to  keep  them  alive  for  a  time. 


66  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


Now,  if  children  do  as  they  see  their  parents  doing,  they 
will  reach  a  satisfactory  adjustment.  We  may,  there- 
fore, say  that  the  tendency  to  imitate  serves  to  adjust 
the  child  to  his  environment.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  imitation  has  been  called  an  adaptive  instinct. 
It  would  perhaps  be  better  to  say  merely  that  the 
tendency  to  imitate  is  part  of  the  original  equipment  of 
man. 

Imitation  is  distinctively  a  human  trait.  While  it 
occurs  in  lower  animals  it  is  probably  not  an  important 
factor  in  adjusting  them  to  their  environment.  But 
in  the  human  race  it  is  one  of  the  chief  factors  in  adjust- 
ment to  environment.  Imitation  is  one  of  the  main 
factors  in  education.  Usually  the  quickest  way  to 
teach  a  child  to  do  a  thing  is  to  show  him  how. 

Through  imitation  we  acquire  our  language,  manners, 
and  customs.  Ideals,  beliefs,  prejudices,  attitudes, 
we  take  on  through  imitation.  The  tendency  to 
imitate  others  coupled  with  the  desire  to  be  thought 
well  of  by  others  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors 
in  producing  conformity.  They  are  the  whips  which 
keep  us  within  the  bounds  of  custom  and  convention- 
ality. The  tendency  to  imitate  is  so  strong  that  its 
results  are  almost  as  certain  as  are  those  of  inherited 
tendencies.  It  is  almost  as  certain  that  a  child 
will  be  like  his  parents  in  speech,  manners,  customs, 
superstitions,  etc.,  as  it  is  that  he  will  be  like  them  in 
form  of  body.  He  not  only  walks  and  talks  and  acts 
like  his  parents,  but  he  thinks  as  they  do.  We,  there- 
fore, have  the  term  social  heredity,  meaning  the  taking 
on  of  all  sorts  of  social  habits  and  ideals  through 
imitation. 

The  part  that  imitation  plays  in  the  education  of  a 
child  may  be  learned  by  going  to  a  country  home  and 


Inherited  Tendencies  67 


noting  how  the  boy  learns  to  do  all  the  many  things 
about  the  farm  by  imitating  his  father,  and  how  the 
girl  learns  to  do  all  the  housework  by  imitating  her 
mother.  Imitation  is  the  basis  of  much  of  the  play  of 
children,  in  that  their  play  consists  in  large  part  of  doing 
what  they  see  older  people  doing.  This  imitative  play 
gives  them  skill  and  is  a  large  factor  in  preparing 
for  the  work  of  life. 

Dramatization.  Dramatization  is  an  aspect  of  imi- 
tation, and  is  a  means  of  making  ideas  more  real  than 
they  would  otherwise  be.  There  is  nothing  that  leads 
us  so  close  to  reality  as  action.  We  never  completely 
know  an  act  till  we  have  done  it.  Dramatization  is  a 
matter  of  carrying  an  idea  out  into  action.  Ideas  give 
to  action  its  greatest  fullness  of  meaning. 

Dramatic  representation  should,  therefore,  have  a 
prominent  place  in  the  schools,  particularly  in  the 
lower  grades.  If  the  child  is  allowed  to  mimic  the 
characters  in  the  reading  lesson,  the  meaning  of  the 
lesson  becomes  fuller.  Later  on  in  the  school  course, 
dramatic  representation  of  the  characters  in  literature 
and  history  is  a  means  of  getting  a  better  conception 
of  these  characters.  In  geography,  the  study  of  the 
manners  and  customs  and  occupations  of  foreign  peoples 
can  be  much  facilitated  through  dramatic  representa- 
tion. Children  naturally  have  the  dramatic  tendency ; 
it  is  one  aspect  of  the  tendency  to  imitate.  We  have 
only  to  encourage  it  and  make  use  of  it  throughout  the 
school  course. 

Imitation  in  Ideals.  Imitation  is  of  importance  not 
only  in  acquiring  the  actions  of  life  but  also  in  getting 
our  ideals.  Habits  of  thinking  are  no  less  an  aspect  of 
our  lives  than  are  habits  of  acting.  Our  attitudes,  our 
prejudices,  our  beliefs,  our  moral,  religious,  and  political 


68  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

ideals  are  in  large  measure  copied  from  people  about  us. 
The  family  and  social  atmosphere  in  which  one  lives 
is  a  mold  in  which  one's  mind  is  formed  and  shaped. 
We  cannot  escape  the  influence  of  this  atmosphere  if 
we  would.  One  takes  on  a  belief  that  his  father  has, 
one  clings  to  this  belief  and  interprets  the  world  in  the 
light  of  it.  This  belief  becomes  a  part  of  one's  nature. 
It  is  a  mental  habit,  a  way  of  looking  at  the  world. 
It  is  as  much  a  part  of  one  as  red  hair  or  big  feet  or  a 
crooked  nose.  Probably  no  other  influence  has  so 
much  to  do  with  making  us  what  we  are  as  social  beings 
as  the  influence  of  imitation. 

Play.  Play  is  usually  considered  to  be  a  part  of  the 
original  equipment  of  man.  It  is  essentially  an  expres- 
sion of  the  ripening  instincts  of  children,  and  not  a 
specific  instinct  itself.  It  is  rather  a  sort  of  make- 
believe  activity  of  all  the  instincts.  Kittens  and  dogs 
may  be  seen  in  play  to  mimic  fighting.  They  bite  and 
chew  each  other  as  in  real  fighting,  but  still  they  are  not 
fighting. 

As  the  structures  and  organs  of  children  mature, 
they  demand  activity.  This  early  activity  is  called 
play.  It  has  several  characteristics.  The  main  one 
is  that  it  is  pleasurable.  Play  activity  is  pleasurable 
in  itself.  We  do  not  play  that  we  may  get  something 
else  which  we  like,  as  is  the  case  with  the  activity  which 
we  call  work.  Play  is  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  not  a  means 
to  get  something  else  which  is  intrinsically  valuable. 

One  of  the  chief  values  of  play  comes  from  its  activity 
aspect.  We  are  essentially  motor  beings.  We  grow 
and  develop  only  through  exercise.  In  early  life  we 
do  not  have  to  exert  ourselves  to  get  a  living.  Play 
is  nature's  means  of  giving  our  organs  the  exercise 
which  they  must  have  to  bring  them  to  maturity.     Play 


Inherited  Tendencies  69 

is  an  expression  of  the  universal  tendency  to  action  in 
early  life.  Without  play,  the  child  would  not  develop, 
would  not  become  a  normal  human  being. 

All  day  long  the  child  is  ceaselessly  active.  The 
value  of  this  activity  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  It 
not  only  leads  to  healthy  growth,  but  is  a  means  through 
which  the  child  learns  himself  and  the  world.  Every- 
thing that  the  child  sees  excites  him  to  react  to  it  or  upon 
it.  He  gets  possession  of  it.  He  bites  it.  He  pounds  it. 
He  throws  it.  In  this  way  he  learns  the  properties  of 
things  and  the  characteristics  of  forces.  Through  play 
and  imitation,  in  a  very  few  years  the  child  comes  to  a 
successful  adjustment  in  his  world. 

Play  and  imitation  are  the  great  avenues  of  activity 
in  early  life.  Even  in  later  life,  we  seldom  accomplish 
anything  great  or  worth  while  untilthe  thing  becomes 
play  to  us,  until  we  throw  our  whole  being  into  it  as  we 
do  in  play,  until  it  is  an  expression  of  ourselves  as  play 
is  in  our  ehildhood.  The  proper  use  of  play  gives  us 
the  solution  of  many  of  the  problems  of  early  education. 

Play  has  two  functions  in  the  school :  (1)  Motor 
play  is  necessary  to  growth,  development,  and  health. 
The  constant  activity  of  the  child  is  what  brings  about 
healthy  growth. 

In  the  country  it  is  not  difficult  for  children  to  get 
plenty  of  the  proper  kind  of  exercise,  but  in  the  larger 
cities  it  is  difficult.  Nevertheless,  opportunity  for  play 
should  be  provided  for  every  child,  no  matter  what  the 
trouble  or  expense,  for  without  play  children  cannot  be- 
come normal  human  beings.  Everywhere  parents  and 
teachers  should  plan  for  the  play  life  of  the  children. 

(2)  In  the  primary  grades  play  can  have  a  large  place 
in  the  actual  work  of  the  school.  The  early  work  of 
education  is  to  a  large  extent  getting  the  tools  of 


70  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

knowledge  and  thought  and  work  —  reading,  spelling, 
writing,  correct  speech,  correct  writing,  the  elementary- 
processes  of  arithmetic,  etc.  In  many  ways  play  can 
be  used  in  acquiring  these  tools. 

One  aspect  of  play  particularly  should  have  a  large 
place  in  education ;  namely,  the  manipulative  tend- 
encies of  children.  This  is  essentially  play.  Children 
wish  to  handle  and  manipulate  everything  that  attracts 
their  attention.  They  wish  to  tear  it  to  pieces  and  to 
put  it  together.  This  is  nature's  way  of  teaching,  and 
by  it  children  learn  the  properties  and  structures  of 
things.  They  thereby  learn  what  things  do  and  what 
can  be  done  with  them.  Teachers  and  parents  should 
foster  these  manipulative  tendencies  and  use  them  for 
the  child's  good.  These  tendencies  are  an  aspect  of 
curiosity.  We  want  to  know.  We  are  unhappy  as 
long  as  a  thing  is  before  us  which  we  do  not  understand, 
which  has  some  mystery  about  it.  Nature  has  devel- 
oped these  tendencies  in  us,  for  without  a  knowledge  of 
our  surroundings  we  could  not  live.  The  child  therefore 
has  in  his  nature  the  basis  of  his  education.  We  have 
but  to  know  this  nature  and  wisely  use  and  manipulate 
it  to  achieve  the  child's  education. 

Summary.  Instincts  are  inherited  tendencies  to  specific  actions. 
They  fall  under  the  heads :  individualistic,  socialistic,  environ- 
mental, adaptive,  sexual  or  mating  instincts.  These  inherited 
tendencies  are  to  a  large  extent  the  foundation  on  which  we  build 
education.  The  educational  problem  is  to  control  and  guide  them, 
suppressing  some,  fostering  others.  In  everything  we  undertake 
for  a  child  we  must  take  into  account  these  instincts. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Make  a  study  of  the  instincts  of  several  animals,  such  as 
dogs,  cats,  chickens.  Make  a  list  showing  the  stimuli  and  the 
inherited  responses. 


Inherited  Tendencies  71 


2.  Make  a  study  of  the  instincts  of  a  baby.  See  how  many 
inherited  responses  you  can  observe.  The  simpler  inherited 
responses  are  known  as  reflexes.  The  closing  of  the  eyelids  men- 
tioned in  the  text  is  an  example.  How  many  such  reflexes  can 
you  find  in  a  child? 

3.  Make  a  special  study  of  the  fears  of  very  young  children. 
How  many  definite  situations  can  you  find  which  excite  fear 
responses  in  all  children?  Each  member  of  the  class  can  make  a 
list  of  his  own  fears.  It  may  then  be  seen  whether  any  fears  are 
common  to  all  members  of  the  class  and  whether  there  are  any 
sex  differences. 

4.  Similarly,  make  a  study  of  anger  and  fighting.  What 
situations  invariably  arouse  the  fighting  response?  In  what 
definite,  inherited  ways  is  anger  shown?  Do  your  studies  and 
observations  convince  you  that  the  fighting  instinct  and  other 
inherited  responses  concerned  with  individual  survival  are  among 
the  strongest  of  inherited  tendencies?  Can  the  fighting  instinct 
be  eliminated  from  the  human  race?  Is  it  desirable  to  elimi- 
nate it? 

5.  Make  a  study  of  children's  collections.     Take  one  of  tfeg^ 
grades  and  find  what  collections  the  children  have  made.    What 
different  objects  are  collected? 

6.  Outline  a  plan  for  using  the  collecting  instinct  in  various 
school  studies. 

7.  With  the  help  of  the  principal  of  the  school  make  a  study 
of  some  specific  cases  of  truancy.     What  does  your  finding  show  ? 

8.  Make  a  study  of  play  by  watching  children  of  various 
ages  play.  Make  a  list  of  the  games  that  are  universal  for  infancy, 
those  for  childhood,  and  those  for  youth.  (Consult  Johnson's 
Plays  and  Games.) 

9.  What  are  the  two  main  functions  of  play  in  education? 
Why  should  we  play  after  we  are  mature? 

10.  Study  imitation  in  very  young  children.  Do  this  by 
watching  the  spontaneous  play  of  children  under  six.  What 
evidences  of  imitation  do  you  find? 

11.  Outline  the  things  we  learn  by  imitation.  What  is  your 
opinion  of  the  place  which  imitation  has  in  our  education? 

12.  Make  a  study  of  imitation  as  a  factor  in  the  lives  of  grown 
people.  Consider  styles,  fashions,  manners,  customs,  beliefs, 
prejudices,  religious  ideas,  etc. 

13.  On  the  whole,  is  imitation  a  good  thing  or  a  bad  thing? 


72  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

14.  Make  a  plan  of  the  various  ways  in  which  dramatization 
can  be  profitably  used  in  the  schools. 

15.  Make  a  study  of  your  own  ideals.  What  ideals  do  you 
have?  Where  did  you  get  them?  What  ideals  did  you  get  from 
your  parents?  What  from  books?  What  from  teachers?  What 
from  friends? 

16.  Show  that  throughout  life  inherited  tendencies  are  the 
fundamental  bases  from  which  our  actions  proceed,  on  which  our 
lives  are  erected. 

17.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 

REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS   READING 

Colvin  and  Bagley  :   Human  Behavior,  Chapters  III,  VIII,  IX, 

and  X. 
Kirkpatrick  :    Fundamentals  of  Child  Study,  Chapters  IV-XIII. 
Munsterberg  :    Psychology,  General  and  Applied,  pp.  184-187. 
Pillsbury  :   Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chapter  X. 
Pyle  :   The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  Chapters  IV-IX. 
Titchener  :  A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapter  VIII. 


CHAPTER  V 
FEELING   AND    ATTENTION 

The  Feelings.  Related  to  the  instincts  on  one  side 
and  to  habits  on  the  other  are  the  feelings.  In  Chap- 
ter III  we  discussed  sensation,  and  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  the  instincts,  but  when  we  have  described  an 
act  in  terms  of  instinct  and  sensation,  we  have  not  told 
all  the  facts. 

For  example,  when  a  child  sees  a  pretty  red  ball  of 
yarn,  he  reaches  out  to  get  it,  then  puts  it  into  his  mouth, 
or  unwinds  it,  and  plays  with  it  in  various  ways.  It 
is  all  a  matter  of  sensation  and  instinctive  responses. 
The  perception  of  the  ball  —  seeing  the  ball  —  brings 
about  the  instinctive  reaching  out,  grasping  the  ball, 
and  bringing  it  to  the  mouth.  But  to  complete  our 
account,  we  must  say  that  the  child  is  pleased.  We 
note  a  change  in  his  facial  expression.  His  eyes  gleam 
with  pleasure.  His  face  is  all  smiles,  showing  pleasant 
contentment.  Therefore  we  must  say  that  the  child 
not  only  sees,  not  only  acts,  but  the  seeing  and  acting 
are  pleasant.  The  child  continues  to  look,  he  continues 
to  act,  because  the  looking  and  acting  bring  joy. 

This  is  typical  of  situations  that  bring  pleasure. 
We  want  them  continued ;  we  act  in  a  way  to  make 
them  continue.  We  go  out  after  the  pleasure-giving 
thing. 

But  let  us  consider  a  different  kind  of  situation.     A 

73 


74  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

child  sees  on  the  hearth  a  glowing  coal.  It  instinc- 
tively reaches  out  and  grasps  it,  starts  to  draw  the  coal 
toward  it,  but  instinctively  drops  it.  This  is  not, 
however,  the  whole  story.  Instead  of  the  situation 
being  pleasant,  it  is  decidedly  unpleasant.  The  child 
fairly  howls  with  pain.  His  face,  instead  of  being 
wreathed  in  smiles,  is  covered  with  tears.  He  did  not 
hold  on  to  the  coal.  He  did  not  try  to  continue  the 
situation.  On  the  contrary,  he  dropped  the  coal,  and 
withdrew  the  hand.  The  body  contracted  and  shrank 
away  from  the  situation. 

These  two  cases  illustrate  the  two  simple  feelings, 
pleasantness  and  unpleasantness.  Most  situations  in 
life  are  either  pleasant  or  unpleasant.  Situations  may 
sometimes  be  neutral ;  that  is,  may  arouse  neither  the 
feeling  of  pleasantness  or  unpleasantness.  But  usually 
a  conscious  state  is  either  pleasant  or  unpleasant.  A 
situation  brings  us  life,  joy,  happiness.  We  want  it 
continued  and  act  in  a  way  to  bring  about  its  con- 
tinuance. Or  the  situation  tends  to  take  away  our 
life,  brings  pain,  sorrow,  grief,  and  we  want  it  dis- 
continued, and  act  in  a  way  to  discontinue  it. 

These  two  simple  forms  of  feeling  perhaps  arose  in 
the  beginning  in  connection  with  the  act  of  taking  food. 
It  is  known  that  if  a  drop  of  acid  touches  an  amoeba, 
the  animal  shrinks,  contracts,  and  tries  to  withdraw 
from  the  death-bringing  acid.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a 
particle  of  a  substance  that  is  suitable  for  food  touches 
the  animal,  it  takes  the  particle  within  itself.  The 
particle  is  life-giving  and  brings  pleasure. 

The  Emotions.  Pleasure  and  displeasure  are  the 
simple  feelings.  Most  situations  in  life  bring  about 
very  complex  feeling  states  known  as  emotions.  The 
emotions  are  made  up  of  pleasure  or  displeasure  mixed 


Feeling  and  Attention  75 

or  compounded  with  the  sensations  from  the  bodily 
reactions. 

The  circulatory  system,  the  respiratory  system,  and 
nearly  all  the  involuntary  organs  of  the  body  form  a 
great  sounding  board  which  instantly  responds  in  vari- 
ous ways  to  the  situations  of  life.  When  the  youth 
sees  the  pretty  maiden  and  when  he  touches  her  hand, 
his  heart  pumps  away  at  a  great  rate,  his  cheeks  be- 
come flushed,  his  breathing  is  paralyzed,  his  voice  trem- 
bles. He  experiences  the  emotion  of  love.  The  state 
is  complex  indeed.  There  is  pleasantness,  of  course, 
but  there  is  in  addition  the  feeling  of  all  the  bodily 
reactions. 

When  the  mother  sees  her  dead  child  lying  in  its  cas- 
ket, her  head  falls  over  on  her  breast,  her  eyes  fill  with 
tears,  her  shoulders  droop,  her  chest  contracts,  she  sobs, 
her  breathing  is  spasmodic.  Nearly  every  organ  of  the 
body  is  affected  in  one  way  or  another.  The  state  is 
unpleasant,  but  there  is  also  the  feeling  of  the  manifold 
bodily  reactions. 

So  it  is  always.  The  biologically  important  situa- 
tions in  life  bring  about,  through  hereditary  connections 
in  the  nervous  system,  certain  typical  reactions.  These 
reactions  are  largely  the  same  for  the  same  type  of  situ- 
ation, and  they  give  the  particular  coloring  to  each  emo- 
tion. It  is  evident  that  the  emotions  are  closely  related 
to  the  instincts.  The  reflexes  that  take  place  in  emo- 
tions are  of  the  same  nature  as  the  instincts.  Each 
instinctive  act  has  its  characteristic  emotion.  There 
are  fear  instincts  and  fear  emotions.  Fear  is  unpleas- 
ant. In  addition  to  its  unpleasantness  there  is  a  mul- 
titude of  sensations  that  come  from  the  body.  The 
hair  stands  on  end,  the  heart  throbs,  the  circulation  is 
hastened,  breathing  is  interrupted,  the  muscles  are 


76  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


tense.  This  peculiar  mass  of  sensations,  blended  with 
the  unpleasantness,  gives  the  characteristic  emotion  of 
fear.  But  we  need  not  go  into  an  analysis  of  the 
various  emotions  of  love,  hate,  envy,  grief,  jealousy, 
etc.    The  reader  can  do  this  for  himself.1 

Nearly  every  organ  of  the  body  plays  its  part  in  the 
emotions :  the  digestive  organs,  the  liver,  the  kidneys, 
the  throat  and  mouth,  the  salivary  glands,  the  eyes 
and  tear  glands,  the  skin  muscles,  the  facial  muscles, 
etc.  And  every  emotion  is  made  up  of  pleasantness  or 
unpleasantness  and  the  sensations  produced  by  some 
combination  of  bodily  reactions. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  remember  the  part  that  bodily 
conditions  and  states  play  in  the  emotional  life.  The 
emotional  state  of  a  man  depends  upon  whether  he  has 
had  his  dinner  or  is  hungry,  whether  the  liver  is  work- 
ing normally,  and  upon  the  condition  of  the  various 
secreting  and  excreting  organs  and  glands.  In  a  word, 
it  is  evident  that  our  emotions  fall  within  a  world  of 
cause  and  effect.     Our  feeling  states  are  caused. 

Importance  in  Life.  Our  feelings  and  emotions  are 
the  fountains  from  which  nearly  all  our  volitional  ac- 
tions flow.  Feeling  is  the  mainspring  of  life.  Nearly 
everything  we  do  is  prompted  by  love,  or  hate,  or  fear, 
or  jealousy,  or  rivalry,  or  anger,  or  grief.  If  the  feelings 
have  such  close  relation  to  action,  then  the  schools  must 
take  them  into  account,  for  by  education  we  seek  to 
control  action.  If  the  feelings  control  action,  then  we 
must  try  to  control  the  feelings.  We  must  get  the  child 
into  a  right  state  of  mind  toward  the  school,  toward  his 
teacher,  and  toward  his  work.  The  child  must  like  the 
school,  like  the  teacher,  and  want  to  learn. 

Moreover,  we  must  create  the  right  state  of  mind  in 
i  See  James'  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  Chapter  XXIV. 


Feeling  and  Attention  77 

connection  with  each  study,  each  task.  The  child  must 
come  to  feel  the  need  and  importance  of  each  individual 
task  as  well  as  of  each  subject.  The  task  is  then  de- 
sirable, it  is  to  be  sought  for  and  worked  at,  it  is  impor- 
tant for  life. 

This  is  merely  enlisting  the  child's  nature  in  the  in- 
terest of  his  education.  For  motive,  we  must  always 
look  to  the  child's  nature.  The  two  great  forces  which 
pull  and  drive  are  pleasure  and  pain.  Nature  has  no 
other  methods.  Formerly  the  school  used  pain  as  its 
motive  almost  exclusively.  The  child  did  his  tasks  to 
escape  pain.  For  motive  we  now  use  more  often  the 
positive  influences  which  give  pleasure,  which  pull 
instead  of  drive.  What  will  one  not  do  for  the  loved 
one?  What  will  one  not  do  to  the  hated  one?  The 
child  who  does  not  love  his  teacher  gets  little  good  from 
school  while  under  that  teacher.  Moreover,  school 
work  is  often  a  failure  because  it  is  so  unreal,  has  so 
little  relation  to  an  actual  world,  and  seems  foreign  to 
any  real  needs  of  the  child.  No  one  is  going  to  work 
very  hard  unless  the  work  is  prompted  by  desire.  Our 
desires  come  from  our  needs.  Therefore,  if  we  are  to 
enlist  the  child's  feelings  in  the  service  of  his  education, 
we  must  make  the  school  work  vital  and  relate  it,  if 
possible,  to  the  actual  needs  of  the  child. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  we  must 
build  up  permanent  attitudes  of  respect  for  authority, 
obedience,  and  reverence  for  the  important  things  of 
life.  Neither  must  it  be  forgotten  that  we  can  create 
needs  in  the  child.  If  in  the  education  of  the  child  we 
follow  only  such  needs  as  he  has,  we  will  make  a  fine 
savage  of  him  but  nothing  else.  It  is  the  business  of 
the  school  to  create  in  the  child  the  right  kind  of  needs. 
As  was  pointed  out  in  our  study  of  the  instincts,  we  must 


78  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

make  the  child  over  again  into  what  he  ought  to  be. 
But  this  cannot  be  a  sudden  process.  One  cannot 
arouse  enthusiasm  in  a  six-year-old  child  over  the 
beauties  of  higher  mathematics.  It  takes  ten  or  fifteen 
years  to  do  that,  and  it  must  be  done  little  by  little. 

Control  of  the  Emotions.  Without  training,  we  re- 
main at  the  mercy  of  our  baser  emotions.  The  child 
must  be  trained  to  control  himself.  Here  is  where 
habit  comes  in  to  modify  primitive  action.  The  child 
can  be  trained  to  inhibit  or  prevent  the  reactions  that 
arise  in  hatred,  envy,  jealousy,  anger,  etc.  For  a  fuller 
discussion  of  this  point  we  must  wait  till  we  come  to  the 
discussion  of  habit  and  moral  training. 

Mood  and  Temperament.  A  mood  is  a  somewhat 
extended  emotional  state  continuing  for  hours  or  days. 
It  is  due  to  a  continuance  of  the  factors  which  cause  it. 
The  state  of  the  liver  and  digestive  organs  may  throw 
one  for  days  into  a  cross  and  ugly  mood.  When  the 
body  becomes  normal,  the  mood  changes  or  disappears. 
Similarly,  one  may  for  hours  or  days  be  overjoyed,  or 
depressed,  or  morose,  or  melancholy.  Parents  and 
teachers  should  look  well  to  the  matter  of  creating 
and  establishing  continuous  and  permanent  states  of 
feeling  that  are  favorable  to  work  and  development. 

Some  people  are  permanently  optimistic,  others  pessi- 
mistic. Some  are  always  joyful,  others  as  constantly 
see  only  the  dark  side  of  life.  Some  are  always  serious 
and  solemn,  others  always  gay,  even  giddy.  These 
permanent  emotional  attitudes  constitute  temperament, 
and  are  due  to  fundamental  differences  within  the  body 
that  are  in  some  cases  hereditary.  Crossness  and 
moroseness,  for  example,  may  be  due  to  a  dyspeptic 
condition  and  a  chronically  bad  liver.  The  happy 
dispositions  belong  to  bodies  whose  organs  are  func- 


Feeling  and  Attention  79 


tioning  properly,  in  which  assimilation  is  good  —  all 
the  parts  of  the  body  doing  their  proper  work. 

Poor  eyes  which  are  under  a  constant  strain,  through 
the  reflex  effects  upon  various  organs  of  the  body,  are 
likely  to  develop  a  permanently  cross  and  irritable  dis- 
position. Through  the  close  sympathetic  relation  of  the 
various  organs,  anything  affecting  one  organ  and  inter- 
fering with  its  proper  action  is  likely  to  affect  many 
other  organs  and  profoundly  influence  the  emotional 
states  of  the  body.  In  growing  children  particularly, 
there  are  many  influences  which  affect  their  emotions, 
things  of  which  we  seldom  think,  such  as  the  condition 
of  vision  and  hearing,  the  condition  of  the  teeth,  nose, 
and  throat,  and  the  condition  of  all  the  important  vital 
organs  of  the  body.  When  a  child's  disposition  is  not 
what  we  think  it  ought  to  be,  we  should  try  to  find 
out  the  causes. 

Training  the  Emotions.  The  emotions  are  subject  to 
training.  The  child  can  be  taught  control.  Moreover, 
he  can  be  taught  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  higher  things 
than  mere  animal  pleasure;  namely,  art,  literature, 
nature,  truth.  The  child  thereby  becomes  a  spiritual 
being  instead  of  a  mere  pig.  The  ideal  of  the  school 
should  be  to  develop  men  and  women  whose  baser  pas- 
sions are  under  control,  who  are  calm,  self-controlled, 
and  self-directed,  and  who  get  their  greatest  pleasure 
from  the  finer  and  higher  things  of  life,  such  as  the 
various  forms  of  music,  the  songs  of  birds,  the  beauties 
and  intricate  workings  of  nature. 

This  is  a  wonderful  world  and  a  wonderful  life,  but 
the  child  may  go  through  the  world  without  seeing  it, 
and  live  his  life  without  knowing  what  it  is  to  live. 
His  eyes  must  be  opened,  he  must  be  trained  to  see  and 
to  feel.     It  is  not  the  place  here  to  tell  how  this  is  to  be 


80  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

done.  This  is  not  a  book  on  methods  of  teaching. 
We  can  only  indicate  here  that  the  business  of  the  school 
is  not  merely  to  teach  people  how  to  make  a  living,  but 
to  teach  them  how  to  enjoy  the  living.  There  are 
many  avenues  from  which  we  get  the  higher  forms  of 
pleasure.  There  are  really  many  different  worlds  which 
we  may  experience :  the  world  of  animals,  the  world  of 
plants,  the  mechanical  world,  the  chemical  world,  the 
world  of  literature  and  of  art,  the  world  of  music.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  schools  to  open  up  these  worlds  to 
the  children,  and  make  them  so  many  possibilities  of  joy 
and  happiness. 

The  emotions  and  feelings,  then,  are  not  lawless  and 
causeless,  but  are  a  part  of  a  world  of  law  and  order. 
They  are  themselves  caused  and  therefore  subject  to 
control  and  modification. 

Attention.  Attention,  too,  is  related  to  inherited 
tendencies  on  the  one  side  and  to  habits  on  the  other. 
If  one  is  walking  in  the  woods  and  catches  a  glimpse  of 
something  moving  in  the  trees,  the  eyes  instinctively 
turn  so  that  the  person  can  get  a  better  view  of  the 
object.  If  one  hears  a  sudden  sound,  the  head  is  in- 
stinctively turned  so  that  the  person  can  hear  better. 
One  stops,  the  body  is  held  still  and  rigid,  breathing  is 
slow  and  controlled  —  all  to  favor  better  hearing. 

The  various  acts  of  attention  are  reflex  and  instinc- 
tive. But  what  is  attention?  By  attention  we  mean 
sensory  clearness.  When  we  say  we  are  attentive  to  a 
thing  or  subject,  we  mean  that  perceptions  or  ideas  of 
that  thing  or  subject  are  clear  as  compared  to  other  per- 
ceptions and  ideas  that  are  in  consciousness  at  the  same 
time.  The  contents  of  one's  consciousness,  the  percep- 
tions and  ideas  that  constitute  one's  mind  at  any  one 
moment  are  always  arranged  in  an  attentive  pattern, 


Feeling  and  Attention  81 


*o 


some  being  clear,  others  unclear.  The  pattern  con- 
stantly changes  and  shifts.  What  is  now  clear  and  in 
the  focus  of  consciousness,  presently  is  unclear  and  may 
in  a  moment  disappear  from  consciousness  altogether, 
while  other  perceptions  or  ideas  take  its  place. 

The  first  question  that  arises  in  connection  with  at- 
tention is,  What  are  the  causes  of  attention?  The  first 
group  of  causes  are  hereditary  and  instinctive.  The 
child  attends  to  loud  things,  bright  things,  moving 
things,  etc.  But  as  we  grow  older,  the  basis  of  atten- 
tion becomes  more  and  more  habit.  An  illustration  will 
make  this  clear.  I  once  spent  a  day  at  a  great  exposi- 
tion with  a  machinist.  He  was  constantly  attending  to 
things  mechanical,  when  I  would  not  even  see  them. 
He  had  spent  many  years  working  with  machinery, 
and  as  a  result,  things  mechanical  at  once  attracted 
him.  Similarly,  if  a  man  and  a  woman  walk  along  a 
street  together  and  look  in  at  the  shop  windows,  the 
woman  sees  only  hats,  dresses,  ribbons,  and  other  finery, 
while  the  man  sees  only  cigars,  pipes,  and  automobile 
supplies.  Every  day  we  live,  we  are  building  up  habits 
of  attending  to  certain  types  of  things.  What  repeat- 
edly comes  into  our  experience,  easily  attracts  our  at- 
tention to  the  exclusion  of  other  things. 

The  Function  of  Attention.  Attention  is  the  unifying 
aspect  of  consciousness.  There  are  always  many  things 
in  consciousness,  and  we  cannot  respond  to  all  at  once. 
The  part  of  consciousness  that  is  clear  and  focal  brings 
about  action.  The  things  to  which  we  attend  are  the 
things  that  count. 

In  later  chapters  we  shall  learn  that  in  habit-forma- 
tion, attention  is  an  important  factor,  We  must  at- 
tend to  the  acts  we  are  trying  to  make  habitual.  In  get- 
ting knowledge,  we  must  attend  to  what  we  are  trying 


82  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

to  learn.  In  committing  to  memory,  we  must  attend 
to  the  ideas  that  we  are  trying  to  fix  and  make  per- 
manent. In  thinking  and  reasoning,  those  ideas  be- 
come associated  together  that  are  together  in  attention. 

Attention  is  therefore  the  controlling  aspect  of  con- 
sciousness. It  is  the  basis  of  what  we  call  will.  The 
ideas  that  are  clear  and  focal  and  that  persist  in  con- 
sciousness are  the  ideas  that  control  our  action.  When 
one  says  he  has  made  up  his  mind,  he  has  made  a  choice ; 
that  merely  means  that  a  certain  group  of  ideas  persist 
in  consciousness  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  These 
are  the  ideas  which  ultimately  produce  action.  And  it 
is  our  past  experience  that  determines  what  ideas  will 
become  focal  and  persist. 

Training  the  Attention.  There  are  two  aspects  of 
the  training  of  attention.  (1)  We  can  learn  to  hold 
ourselves  to  a  task.  When  we  sit  down  to  a  table  to 
study,  there  may  be  many  things  that  tend  to  call  us 
away.  There  lies  a  magazine  which  we  might  read, 
there  is  a  play  at  the  theater,  there  are  noises  outside, 
there  is  a  friend  calling  across  the  street.  But  we  must 
study.  We  have  set  ourselves  to  a  task  and  we  must 
hold  fast  to  our  purpose. 

The  young  child  cannot  do  this.  He  must  be  trained 
to  do  it.  The  instruments  used  to  train  him  are  pleas- 
ure and  pain,  rewards  and  punishments  that  come 
from  parents.  Gradually,  slowly,  the  child  gains  con- 
trol over  himself.  No  one  ever  amounts  to  anything 
till  he  can  hold  himself  to  a  task,  to  a  fixed  purpose. 
One  must  learn  to  form  plans  extending  over  weeks, 
months,  and  years,  and  to  hold  unflinchingly  to  them, 
just  as  one  must  hold  himself  to  his  study  table  and 
allow  nothing  to  distract  or  to  interfere.  No  training 
a  child  can  receive  is  more  important  than  this,  for  it 


Feeling  and  Attention  83 

gives  him  control  over  his  life,  it  gives  him  control 
over  the  ideas  that  are  to  become  focal  and  determine 
action.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  call  such  training 
a  training  of  attention.  It  might  perhaps  better  be 
called  a  training  of  the  will.  But  the  will  is  only  the 
attentive  consciousness.  The  idea  that  is  clear,  that 
holds  its  own  in  consciousness,  is  the  idea  that  produces 
action.  When  we  say  that  we  will  to  do  a  certain  thing, 
all  we  can  mean  is  that  the  idea  of  this  act  is  clearest 
and  holds  its  focal  place  in  consciousness  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  other  ideas.     It  therefore  goes  over  into  action. 

(2)  The  training  just  discussed  may  be  called  a 
general  training  of  attention  giving  us  a  general  power 
and  control  over  our  lives,  but  there  is  another  type 
of  training  which  is  specific.  As  with  the  machinist 
mentioned  above,  so  with  all  of  us;  we  attend  to 
the  type  of  thing  that  we  have  formed  a  habit 
of  attending  to.  Continued  experience  in  a  certain 
field  makes  it  more  and  more  easy  to  attend  to  things 
in  that  field.  One  can  take  a  certain  subject  and  work 
at  it  day  after  day,  year  after  year.  By  and  by,  the 
whole  world  takes  on  the  aspect  of  this  chosen  subject. 
The  entomologist  sees  bugs  everywhere,  the  botanist 
sees  only  plants,  the  mechanic  sees  only  machines,  the 
preacher  sees  only  the  moral  and  religious  aspects  of 
action,  the  doctor  sees  only  disease,  the  mathematician 
sees  always  the  quantitative  aspect  of  things.  Ideas 
and  perceptions  related  to  one's  chosen  work  go  at  once 
and  readily  to  the  focus  of  consciousness ;  other  things 
escape  notice. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  become  "  crankier  ,: 
every  year  that  we  live.  We  are  attending  to  only  one 
aspect  of  the  world.  While  this  blinds  us  to  other 
aspects  of  the  world,  it  brings  mastery  in  our  individual 


84  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

fields.  We  can,  then,  by  training  and  practice,  get  a 
general  control  over  attention,  and  by  working  in  a 
certain  field  or  kind  of  work,  we  make  it  easy  to  attend 
to  things  in  that  field  or  work.  This  to  an  extent 
gives  us  control  of  our  lives,  of  our  destiny. 

Interest.  The  essential  elements  of  interest  are 
attention  and  feeling.  When  a  person  is  very  attentive 
to  a  subject  and  gets  pleasure  from  experience  in  that 
subject,  we  commonly  say  that  he  is  interested  in  that 
subject. 

Since  the  importance  of  attention  and  feeling  in  learn- 
ing has  already  been  shown  and  will  be  further  devel- 
oped in  the  chapters  which  follow  in  connection  with  the 
subjects  of  habit,  memory,  and  thinking,  little  more 
need  be  said  here. 

The  key  to  all  forms  of  learning  is  attention.  The 
key  to  attention  is  feeling.  Feeling  depends  upon  the 
nature  of  the  child,  inherited  and  acquired.  In  our 
search  for  the  means  of  arousing  interest,  we  look  first 
to  the  original  nature  of  the  child,  to  the  instincts  and 
the  emotions.  We  look  next  to  the  acquired  nature, 
the  habits,  the  ideals,  the  various  needs  that  have  grown 
up  in  the  individual's  life.  Educational  writers  have 
overemphasized  the  original  nature  of  the  child  as  a 
basis  of  interest  and  have  not  paid  enough  attention  to 
acquired  nature.  We  should  not  ask  so  much  what  a 
child's  needs  are,  but  what  they  ought  to  be.  Needs  can 
be  created.  The  child's  nature  to  some  extent  can  be 
changed.  The  problem  of  arousing  interest  is  there- 
fore one  of  finding  in  the  child's  nature  a  basis  for  at- 
tention and  pleasure.  If  the  basis  is  not  to  be  found 
there,  then  it  must  be  built  up.  How  this  can  be  done, 
how  human  nature  can.  be  changed,  is  to  some  extent 
the  main  problem  of  psychology.     Every  chapter  in 


Feeling  and  Attention  85 

this  book,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  found  to  throw  some  light 
on  the  problem. 

Summary.  The  two  elementary  feeling  states  are  pleasantness 
and  unpleasantness.  The  emotions  are  complex  mental  states 
composed  of  feeling  and  the  sensations  from  bodily  reactions  to 
the  situations.  Feeling  and  emotion  are  the  motive  forces  of 
life,  at  the  bottom  of  all  important  actions.  The  bodily  reactions 
of  emotions  are  reflex  and  instinctive.  Attention  is  a  matter  of 
the  relative  clearness  of  the  contents  of  consciousness.  The  func- 
tion of  attention  is  to  unify  thought  and  action.  It  is  the  im- 
portant factor  in  all  learning  and  thinking,  for  it  is  only  the  atten- 
tive part  of  consciousness  that  is  effective. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Make  out  a  complete  list  of  the  more  important  emotions. 

2.  Indicate  the  characteristic  expression  of  each  emotion  in 
your  list. 

3.  Can  you  have  an  emotion  without  its  characteristic  ex- 
pression? If,  for  example,  when  a  situation  arises  which  ordinarily 
arouses  anger  in  you,  you  inhibit  all  the  usual  motor  accompani- 
ments of  anger,  are  you  really  angry? 

4.  Are  the  expressions  of  the  same  emotion  the  same  for  all 
people? 

5.  Try  to  analyze  some  of  your  emotional  states :  anger,  or 
fear,  or  grief.  Can  you  detect  the  sensations  that  come  from  the 
bodily  reactions? 

6.  Try  to  induce  an  emotional  state  by  producing  its  char- 
acteristic reactions. 

7.  Try  to  change  an  emotional  state  to  an  opposite  emotion ; 
for  example,  grief  to  joy. 

8.  Try  to  control  and  change  emotional  states  in  children. 

9.  Name  some  sensations  that  for  you  are  always  pleasant, 
others  that  are  always  unpleasant  —  colors,  sounds,  tastes,  odors, 
temperatures. 

10.  Confirm  by  observation  the  statement  of  the  text  as  to 
the  importance  of  emotions  in  all  the  important  actions  of  life. 

11.  To  what  extent  do  you  have  control  of  your  emotional 
states?  What  have  you  observed  about  differences  in  expression 
of  deep  emotions  by  different  people?     In  case  of  death  in  the 


86  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

family,  some  people  wail  and  moan  and  express  their  grief  in  the 
most  extreme  manner,  while  others  do  not  utter  a  sound  and  show 
great  control.     Why  the  difference? 

12.  Make  an  introspective  study  of  your  conscious  states  to 
note  the  difference  in  clearness  of  the  different  processes  that  are 
going  on  in  consciousness.     Do  you  find  a  constant  shifting? 

13.  Perform  experiments  to  show  the  effects  of  attention  in 
forming  habits  and  acquiring  knowledge. 

(1)  Perform  tests  in  learning,  using  substitution  tests  as 
described  in  Chapter  X.  Use  several  different  keys.  In  some 
experiments  have  no  distractions,  in  others,  have  various  distract- 
ing noises.     What  differences  do  you  find  in  the  results? 

(2)  Try  learning  nonsense  syllables,  some  lists  with  distractions, 
others  without  distractions. 

(3)  Try  getting  the  ideas  from  stories  read  to  you,  as  in  the 
logical  memory  experiment  described  in  Chapter  X.  Some  storiea 
should  be  read  without  distractions,  others  with  distractions. 

14.  Why  are  you  unable  to  study  well  when  under  the  influence 
of  some  strong  emotion? 

15.  Are  you  trained  to  the  extent  that  you  can  concentrate  on 
a  task  and  hold  yourself  to  it  for  a  long  time? 

16.  Do  you  see  that  as  far  as  will  and  attention  and  the  emo- 
tions are  concerned,  your  life  and  character  are  in  large  measure 
in  your  own  hands? 

17.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 

REFERENCES    FOR   CLASS    READING 

Colvin  and  Bagley  :  Human  Behavior,  Chapters  IV,  V,  and  VI. 
Munsterberg  :  Psychology,  General  and  Applied,  Chapter  XIV, 

also  pp.  187-192  and  pp.  370-371. 
Pillsbury:   Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chapters  V  and  XI. 
Pyle  :    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  Chapter  XIV. 
Titchener  :  A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapters  IV,  VIII,  and  XI. 


CHAPTER   VI 
HABIT 

The  Nature  of  Habit.  We  now  turn  from  man's  in- 
herited nature  to  his  acquired  nature.  Inherited  tend- 
encies to  action  we  have  called  instincts ;  acquired 
tendencies  to  action  we  shall  call  habits.  We  can  best 
form  an  idea  of  the  nature  of  habit  by  considering 
some  concrete  cases. 

Let  us  take  first  the  case  of  a  man  forming  the  habit 
of  turning  out  the  basement  light.  It  usually  happens 
that  when  a  man  has  an  electric  light  in  the  basement 
of  his  house,  it  is  hard  for  him  at  first  to  think  to  turn 
out  the  light  at  night  when  he  retires,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  light  often  burns  all  night.  This  is  expen- 
sive and  unnecessary,  so  there  is  a  strong  incentive  for 
the  man  to  find  a  plan  which  will  insure  the  regular 
turning-off  of  the  light  at  bedtime.  The  plan  usually 
hit  upon  is  the  following:  The  electric  switch  that 
controls  the  basement  light  is  beside  the  basement 
stairway.  The  man  learns  to  look  at  the  switch  as  he 
comes  up  the  stairs,  after  preparing  the  furnace  fire 
for  the  night,  and  learns  to  take  hold  of  the  switch  when 
he  sees  it  and  turn  off  the  light.  Coming  up  the  stairs 
means  to  look  at  the  switch.  Seeing  the  switch  means 
to  turn  it.  Each  step  of  the  performance  touches  off 
the  next.  The  man  sees  that  in  order  to  make  sure 
that  the  light  will  always  be  turned  off,  the  acts  must  all 

87 


88  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

be  made  automatic,  and  each  step  must  touch  off  the 
next  in  the  series.  At  first,  the  man  leaves  the  light 
burning  about  as  often  as  he  turns  it  off.  After  prac- 
ticing for  a  time  on  the  scheme,  the  different  acts  be- 
come so  well  connected  that  he  seldom  leaves  the  light 
burning.  We  say  that  he  has  formed  the  habit  of  turn- 
ing off  the  light. 

For  a  second  illustration,  let  us  take  the  process  of 
learning  that  nine  times  nine  equals  eighty-one.  At 
first,  one  does  not  say  or  write  "  eighty-one  "  when  one 
sees  "  nine  times  nine,"  but  one  can  acquire  the  habit 
of  doing  so.  It  does  not  here  concern  us  how  the 
child  learns  what  the  product  of  nine  times  nine  is.  He 
may  learn  it  by  counting,  by  being  told,  or  by  reading  it 
in  a  book.  But  however  he  first  learns  it,  he  fixes  it 
and  makes  it  automatic  and  habitual  by  continuing  to 
say  or  to  write,  "  nine  times  nine  equals  eighty- 
one."  The  essential  point  is  that  at  first  the  child  does 
not  know  what  to  say  when  he  hears  or  sees  the  expres- 
sion "  nine  times  nine,"  but  after  long  practice  he  comes 
to  give  automatically  and  promptly  the  correct  answer. 
For  the  definite  problem  "  nine  times  nine "  there 
comes  the  definite  response  "  eighty-one." 

For  a  third  illustration,  let  us  take  the  case  of  a  man 
tipping  his  hat  when  he  meets  a  lady.  A  young  boy 
does  not  tip  his  hat  when  he  meets  a  lady  until  he  has 
been  taught  to  do  so.  After  he  learns  this  act  of  cour- 
tesy he  does  it  quite  automatically  without  thinking  of 
it.  For  the  definite  situation,  meeting  a  lady  of  his 
acquaintance,  there  comes  to  be  established  the  definite 
response,  tipping  the  hat.  A  similar  habit  is  that  of 
turning  to  the  right  when  we  meet  a  person.  For  the 
definite  situation,  meeting  a  person  on  the  road  or 
street  or  sidewalk,  there  is  established  the  definite  re- 


Habit  89 

sponse,  turning  to  the  right.     The  response  becomes 
automatic,  immediate,  certain. 

There  is  another  type  of  habit  that  may  properly  be 
called  an  intellectual  habit,  such  as  voting  a  certain 
party  ticket,  say  the  Democratic.  When  one  is  a  boy, 
one  hears  his  father  speak  favorably  of  the  Democratic 
party.  His  father  says,  "  Hurrah  for  Bryan,"  so  he 
comes  to  say,  "  Hurrah  for  Bryan."  His  father  says, 
"  I  am  a  Democrat,"  so  he  says  he  is  a  Democrat.  He 
takes  the  side  that  his  father  takes.  In  a  similar 
way  we  take  on  the  same  religious  notions  that  our 
parents  have.  It  does  not  always  happen  this  way,  but 
this  is  the  rule.  But  no  matter  how  we  come  to  do  it, 
we  do  adopt  the  creed  of  some  party  or  some  church. 
We  adopt  a  certain  way  of  looking  at  public  questions, 
and  a  certain  way  of  looking  at  religious  questions. 
For  certain  rather  definite  situations,  we  come  to  take 
definite  stands.  When  we  go  to  the  booth  to  vote,  we 
look  at  the  top  of  the  ballot  to  find  the  column  marked 
"  Democratic,"  and  the  definite  response  is  to  check 
the  "  Democrat  "  column.  Of  course,  some  of  us  form 
a  different  habit  and  check  the  "  Republican  "  column, 
but  the  psychology  of  the  act  is  the  same.  The  point 
is  that  we  form  the  Democratic  habit  or  we  form  the 
Republican  habit;  and  the  longer  we  practice  the 
habit,  the  harder  it  is  to  change  it. 

In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1912,  Roosevelt 
"  bolted  "  from  the  Republican  party.  It  was  hard 
for  the  older  Republicans  to  follow  him.  While  one 
occasionally  found  a  follower  of  Roosevelt  who  was  gray, 
one  usually  found  the  old  Republicans  standing  by  the 
old  party,  the  younger  ones  joining  the  Progressive 
party.  It  is  said  that  when  Darwin  published  "  The 
Origin  of  Species,"  very  few  old  men  accepted  the  doc- 


90  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

trine  of  evolution.  The  adherents  of  the  new  doctrine 
were  nearly  all  young  men.  So  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
an  intellectual  habit.  One  comes  to  take  a  definite 
stand  when  facing  certain  definite  intellectual  situations. 

Similar  to  the  type  of  habits  which  we  have  called 
intellectual  is  another  type  which  may  be  called 
"  moral."  When  we  face  the  situation  of  reporting  an 
occurrence,  we  can  tell  the  truth  or  we  can  lie.  We 
can  build  up  the  habit  of  meeting  such  situations  by 
telling  the  truth  on  all  occasions.  We  can  learn  to  fol- 
low the  maxim  "Tell  the  truth  at  all  times,  at  all 
hazards."  We  can  come  to  do  this  automatically,  cer- 
tainly, and  without  thought  of  doing  anything  else. 

Most  moral  situations  are  fairly  definite  and  clear- 
cut,  and  for  them  we  can  establish  definite  forms  of 
response.  We  can  form  the  habit  of  helping  a  person 
in  distress,  of  helping  a  sick  neighbor,  of  speaking  well 
of  a  neighbor ;  we  can  form  habits  of  industry,  habits 
of  perseverance.  These  and  other  similar  habits  are 
the  basis  of  morality. 

The  various  kinds  of  habits  which  we  have  enumer- 
ated are  alike  in  certain  fundamental  particulars.  In 
all  of  them  there  is  a  definite  situation  followed  by  a 
definite  response.  One  sees  the  switch  and  turns  off 
the  light ;  he  sees  the  expression  "  nine  times  nine  " 
and  says  "  eighty-one  "  ;  he  sees  a  lady  he  knows  and 
tips  his  hat ;  in  meeting  a  carriage  on  the  road,  he  turns 
to  the  right ;  when  he  has  to  vote,  he  votes  a  certain 
ticket;  when  he  has  to  report  an  occurrence,  he  tells 
it  as  it  happened.  There  is,  in  every  case,  a  definite 
situation  followed  by  a  definite  response. 

Another  characteristic  is  common  to  all  the  cases 
mentioned  above  *  i.e.  the  response  is  acquired,  it 
does  not  come  at  first.     In  every  instance  we  might 


Habit  91 

have  learned  to  act  differently.  We  could  form  the 
habit  of  always  leaving  the  light  burning ;  could  just  as 
easily  say  "  nine  times  nine  equals  forty  " ;  we  could 
turn  to  the  left ;  we  could  vote  the  Republican  ticket. 
We  can  form  bad  moral  habits  as  well  as  good  ones, 
perhaps  more  easily.  The  point  is,  however,  that  we 
acquire  definite  ways  of  acting  for  the  same  situations, 
and  these  definite  ways  of  acting  are  called  habits. 

Habit  and  Nerve-Path.  It  has  already  been  stated 
that  a  habit  is  a  tendency  toward  a  certain  type 
of  action  in  a  certain  situation.  The  basis  of  this  tend- 
ency is  in  the  nervous  system.  In  order  to  understand 
it  we  must  consider  what  the  nervous  system  is  like. 
Nerves  terminate  at  one  end  in  a  sense  organ  and  at  the 
other  end  ultimately  in  a  muscle. 

In  Figure  II,  A  is  a  sense  organ,  B  a  nerve  going 
from  the  sense  organ  to  the  brain  C.  D,  E,  F,  G,  and  H 
are  motor  nerves  going  from  the  brain  to  the  muscles. 
Now,  let  us  show  from  the  diagram  what  organization 
means  and  what  tendency  means.  At  first  when  the 
child  sees  the  expression  "  nine  times  nine,"  he  does 
not  say  "  eighty-one."  The  stimulus  brings  about 
no  definite  action.  It  is  as  likely  to  go  out  through  E 
or  F  as  through  D.  But  suppose  we  can  get  the  child 
to  say  "  nine  times  nine  equals  eighty-one."  We  can 
write  the  expression  on  the  blackboard  and  have  the 
child  look  at  it  and  say  "  nine  times  nine  equals  eighty- 
one."  Suppose  the  act  of  saying  "  eighty-one  "  is 
brought  about  by  the  nerve-current  going  out  through 
nerve-chain  D.  By  repetition,  we  establish  a  bond. 
A  stimulus  of  a  particular  kind  comes  through  A,  goes 
over  B  to  C,  and  out  over  D,  making  muscles  at  M  bring 
about  a  very  definite  action  in  saying  "  eighty-one." 

From  the  point  of  view  of  physiology,  the  process  of 


92 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


habit-formation  consists  in  securing  a  particular  nerve 
coupling,  establishing  a  particular  nerve  path,  so 
that  a  definite  form  of  stimulation  will  bring  about  a 
definite  form  of  response.  A  nerve  tendency  is 
simply  the  likelihood  that  a  stimulus  will  take  a  cer- 
tain course  rather  than  any  other.     This  likelihood  is 

A, 


Figure  II.  —  The  Organization  of  Tendencies 


brought  about  by  getting  the  stimulus  to  take  the 
desired  route  through  the  nervous  system  to  a  group 
of  muscles  and  to  continue  following  this  route.  The 
more  times  it  passes  the  same  way,  the  greater  is  the 
probability  that  at  any  given  time  the  stimulus  will 
take  the  accustomed  route  and  bring  about  the  usual 
response.  At  first  any  sort  of  action  is  possible.  A 
nerve  stimulus  can  take  any  one  of  the  many  routes 
to  the  different  muscles.     By  chance  or  by  conscious 


Habit  93 

-,  ....  — — — — — ■ — -""■•■ 

direction,  the  stimulus  takes  a  certain  path,  and  by- 
repetition  we  fix  and  make  permanent  this  particular 
route.    This  constitutes  a  nerve  tendency  or  habit. 

Plasticity.  Our  discussion  should  have  made  it  clear 
that  habit  is  acquired  nature,  while  instinct  is  in- 
herited nature.  Habit  is  acquired  tendency  while 
instinct  is  inherited  tendency.  The  possibility  of 
acquiring  habits  is  peculiarly  a  human  characteristic. 
While  inanimate  things  have  a  definite  nature,  a  definite 
way  of  reacting  to  forces  which  act  upon  them,  they 
have  little,  if  any,  possibility  of  varying  their  way  of 
acting.  Water  might  be  said  to  have  habits.  If  one 
cools  water,  it  turns  to  ice.  If  we  heat  it,  it  turns  to 
steam.  But  it  invariably  does  this.  We  cannot  teach 
it  any  different  way  of  acting.  Under  the  same  condi- 
tions it  always  does  the  same  thing. 

Plants  are  very  much  like  inanimate  things.  Plants 
have  definite  ways  of  acting.  A  vine  turns  around  a 
support.  A  leaf  turns  its  upper  surface  to  the  light. 
But  one  cannot  teach  plants  different  ways  of  acting. 
The  lower  forms  of  animals  are  somewhat  like  plants 
and  inanimate  objects.  But  to  a  very  slight  extent 
they  are  variable  and  can  form  habits.  Among  the 
higher  animals,  such  as  dogs  and  other  domestic  ani- 
mals, there  is  a  greater  possibility  of  forming  habits. 
In  man  there  are  the  greatest  possibilities  of  habit- 
formation.  In  man  the  learned  acts  or  habits  are 
many  as  compared  to  the  unlearned  acts  or  instincts ; 
while  among  the  lower  animals  the  opposite  is  the  case  — 
their  instincts  are  many  as  compared  to  their  habits. 

We  may  call  this  possibility  of  forming  habits  plas- 
ticity. Inanimate  objects  such  as  iron,  rocks,  sulphur, 
oxygen,  etc.,  have  no  plasticity.  Plants  have  very 
little  possibility  of  forming  habits.     Lower  animals 


94  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

have  somewhat  more,  and  higher  animals  still  more, 
while  man  has  the  greatest  possibility  of  forming  habits. 
This  great  possibility  of  forming  habits  is  one  of  the 
main  characteristics  of  man.  Let  us  illustrate  the 
contrast  between  man  and  inanimate  objects  by  an 
example.  If  sulphur  is  put  into  a  test  tube  and 
heated,  it  at  first  melts  and  becomes  quite  thin  like 
water.  If  it  is  heated  still  more,  it  becomes  thick  and 
will  not  run  out  of  the  tube.  It  also  becomes  dark. 
Sulphur  always  does  this  when  so  treated.  It  cannot 
be  taught  to  act  differently.  Now  the  action  of  sul- 
phur when  heated  is  like  the  action  of  a  man  when  he 
turns  to  the  right  upon  meeting  a  person  in  the  street. 
But  the  man  has  to  acquire  this  habit,  while  the  sulphur 
does  not  have  to  learn  its  way  of  acting.  Sulphur  al- 
ways acted  in  this  way,  while  man  did  not  perform 
his  act  at  first,  but  had  to  learn  it  by  slow  repetition. 

Everything  in  the  world  has  its  own  peculiar  nature, 
but  man  is  unique  in  that  his  nature  can  be  very  much 
changed.  To  a  large  extent,  a  man  is  made,  his  nature 
is  acquired.  After  we  become  men  and  women,  we 
have  hundreds  and  thousands  of  tendencies  to  action, 
definite  forms  of  action,  that  we  did  not  have  when 
young.  Man's  nature  might  be  said  to  consist  in  his 
tendencies  to  action.  Some  of  these  tendencies  he 
inherits;  these  are  his  instincts.  Some  of  these  he 
acquires ;  these  are  his  habits. 

What  Habits  Do  for  Us.  We  have  found  out  what 
habits  are  like ;  let  us  now  see  what  they  do  for  us. 
What  good  do  they  accomplish  for  us?  How  are  we 
different  after  forming  a  habit  from  what  we  were 
before?  We  can  best  answer  these  questions  by  a 
consideration  of  concrete  cases.  Typewriting  will 
serve  very  well  the  purpose  of  illustration.     We  shall 


Habit 


95 


give  the  result  of  an  actual  experiment  in  which  ten 
university  students  took  part.     During  their  first  half 


600 


500 


400 


300 


200 


100 

1  10  20  30 

Figure  III.  —  Learning  Curves 

The  upper  graph  shows  the  improvement  in  speed  of  a  group  of 
students  working  two  half  hours  a  day.  The  lower  curve  shows 
the  improvement  of  a  group  working  ten  half-hours  a  day. 

hour  of  practice,  they  wrote  an  average  of  120  words. 
At  the  end  of  forty-five  hours  of  practice,  they  were 


96  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

writing  an  average  of  680  words  in  a  half  hour.  This 
was  an  increase  of  speed  of  560  per  cent.  An  expert 
typist  can  write  about  3000  words  in  a  half  hour. 
Such  a  speed  requires  much  more  than  forty-five  hours 
practice,  and  is  attained  by  the  best  operators  only. 

In  the  foregoing  experiment,  the  students  improved 
in  accuracy  also.  At  the  beginning  of  the  work,  they 
made  115  errors  in  the  half  hour.  At  the  end  of  the 
practice,  with  much  faster  speed,  they  were  making 
only  327  errors  in  a  half  hour.  The  actual  number  of 
errors  had  increased  280  per  cent.  The  increase  in 
errors  was  therefore  exactly  half  as  much  as  the  increase 
in  speed.  This,  of  course,  was  a  considerable  increase 
in  accuracy,  for  while  the  speed  had  increased  to  5.6 
times  what  it  had  been  at  the  beginning,  the  errors 
had  increased  only  2.8  times.  The  subjects  in  this 
experiment  paid  much  more  attention  to  speed  than 
they  did  to  accuracy.  If  they  had  emphasized  accu- 
racy, they  would  have  been  doing  almost  perfect  work 
at  the  end  of  the  practice,  and  their  speed  would  have 
been  somewhat  less.  Practice,  then,  not  only  develops 
speed  but  also  develops  accuracy. 

There  are  also  other  results.  At  the  beginning  of 
work  with  the  typewriter,  there  is  much  waste  of  energy 
and  much  fatigue.  The  waste  of  energy  comes  from 
using  unnecessary  muscles,  and  the  fatigue  is  partly 
due  to  this  waste  of  energy.  But  even  apart  from  this 
waste  of  energy,  an  habituated  act  is  performed  with 
less  fatigue.  The  various  muscles  concerned  become 
better  able  to  do  their  work.  As  a  result  of  habitua- 
tion there  is,  then,  greater  speed,  greater  accuracy,  less 
waste  of  energy,  and  less  fatigue. 

If  we  look  not  at  the  changes  in  our  work  but  at 
the  changes  in  ourselves,  the  changes  in  our  minds  due 


Habit  97 

to  the  formation  of  habits,  we  find  still  other  results. 
At  the  beginning  of  practice  with  the  typewriter,  the 
learner's  whole  attention  is  occupied  with  the  work. 
When  one  is  learning  to  do  a  new  trick,  the  attention 
cannot  be  divided.  The  whole  mind  must  be  devoted 
to  the  work.  But  after  one  has  practiced  for  several 
weeks,  one  can  operate  the  typewriter  while  thinking 
about  something  else.  We  say  that  the  habituated  act 
sinks  to  a  lower  level  of  consciousness,  meaning  that 
as  a  habit  becomes  more  and  more  fixed,  less  and  less 
attention  is  devoted  to  the  acts  concerned. 

Increased  skill  gives  us  pleasure  and  also  gives  us 
confidence  in  our  ability  to  do  the  thing.  Correspond- 
ing to  this  inner  confidence  is  outer  certainty.  There 
is  greater  objective  certainty  in  our  performance  and 
a  corresponding  inner  confidence.  By  objective  cer- 
tainty, we  mean  that  a  person  watching  our  perform- 
ance, becomes  more  and  more  sure  of  our  ability  to 
perform,  and  we  ourselves  feel  confidence  in  our  power 
of  achievement. 

Now  that  we  have  shown  the  results  of  habituation 
let  us  consider  additional  illustrations.  In  piano  play- 
ing, the  stimuli  are  the  notes  as  written  in  the  music. 
We  see  the  notes  occupying  certain  places  on  the  scale 
of  the  music.  A  note  in  a  certain  place  means  that  we 
must  strike  a  certain  key.  At  first  the  response  is 
slow,  we  have  to  hunt  out  each  note  on  the  keyboard. 
Moreover,  we  make  many  mistakes;  we  strike  the 
wrong  keys  just  as  we  do  in  typewriting.  We  are 
awkward,  making  many  unnecessary  movements,  and 
the  work  is  tiresome  and  fatiguing.  After  long  prac- 
tice, the  speed  with  which  we  can  manipulate  the  keys 
in  playing  the  piano  is  wonderful.  Our  playing  be- 
comes accurate,  perfect.     We  do  it  with  ease,  with  no 


98  The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

unnecessary  movements.  We  can  play  the  piano, 
after  we  become  skilled,  without  paying  attention  to 
the  actual  movements  of  our  hands.  We  can  play 
the  piano  while  concentrating  upon  the  meaning  of 
the  music,  or  while  carrying  on  a  conversation,  or  v/hile 
thinking  about  something  else.  As  a  rule,  pleasure 
and  confidence  come  with  skill.  Playing  a  difficult 
piece  on  the  piano  involves  a  skill  which  is  one  of  the 
most  complicated  that  man  achieves.  It  is  possible  only 
through  habituation  of  the  piano-playing  movements. 

Nailing  shingles  on  a  roof  illustrates  well  the  various 
aspects  of  habituation.  The  expert  carpenter  not 
only  nails  on  many  more  shingles  in  a  day  than  does 
the  amateur,  but  he  does  it  better  and  with  more  ease, 
and  with  much  less  fatigue.  The  carpenter  knows 
exactly  how  much  he  can  do  in  a  day,  and  each  par- 
ticular movement  is  certain  and  sure.  The  carpenter 
has  confidence  in,  and  usually  prides  himself  on,  this 
ability,  thus  getting  pleasure  out  of  his  work. 

The  operations  in  arithmetic  illustrate  most  of  the 
results  of  habituation.  Practice  in  addition  makes  for 
speed  and  accuracy.  In  a  few  weeks'  time  we  can  very 
much  increase  our  speed  and  accuracy  in  adding,  or  in 
the  other  arithmetical  operations. 

The  foregoing  examples  are  sufficient,  although  they 
could  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  Almost  any  habit 
one  might  name  would  show  clearly  most  of  the  results 
enumerated.  The  most  important  aspects  of  habitua- 
tion may  be  summed  up  in  the  one  word  efficiency. 
Habituation  gives  us  speed  and  accuracy.  Speed  and 
accuracy  mean  skill.     Skill  means  efficiency. 

How  Habits  Are  Formed.  It  is  clear  from  the  fore- 
going discussion  that  the  essential  thing  in  a  habit  is 
the  definiteness  of  the  connection  between  the  stimulus 


Habit  99 

and  the  response,  between  the  situation  and  the  re- 
action to  the  situation.  Our  question  now  is,  how  is 
this  definiteness  of  connection  established?  The  an- 
swer is,  through  repetition.  Let  us  work  the  matter 
out  from  a  concrete  case,  such  as  learning  to  play  the 
piano.  In  piano  playing  the  stimulus  comes  from 
the  music  as  printed  on  the  staff.  A  note  having 
a  certain  position  on  the  staff  indicates  that  a  cer- 
tain key  is  to  be  struck.  We  are  told  by  our  music 
teacher  what  keys  on  the  piano  correspond  to  the 
various  notes  on  the  staff,  or  we  may  learn  these 
facts  from  the  instruction  book.  It  makes  no  differ- 
ence how  we  learn  them;  but  after  we  know  these 
facts,  we  must  have  practice  to  give  us  skill.  The 
mere  knowledge  will  not  make  us  piano  players.  In 
order  to  be  skillful,  we  must  have  much  practice  not 
only  in  striking  the  keys  indicated  by  the  various  note 
positions,  but  with  the  various  combinations  of  notes. 
For  example,  a  note  on  the  second  space  indicates  that 
the  player  must  strike  the  key  known  as  "  A."  But 
"  A  "  may  occur  with  any  of  the  other  notes,  it  may 
precede  them  or  it  may  follow  them.  We  must  there- 
fore have  practice  in  striking  "  A  "  in  all  these  situa- 
tions. To  have  skill  at  the  piano,  we  must  mechanize 
many  performances.  We  must  be  able  to  read  the 
notes  with  accuracy  and  ease.  We  must  practice  so 
much  that  the  instant  we  see  a  certain  combination  of 
notes  on  the  staff,  our  hands  immediately  execute  the 
proper  strokes.  Not  only  must  we  learn  what  keys  on 
the  piano  correspond  to  the  various  notes  of  the  music, 
but  the  notes  have  a  temporal  value  which  we  must 
learn.  Some  are  to  be  sounded  for  a  short  time,  others 
for  a  longer  time.  We  have  eighth  notes,  quarter  notes, 
half  notes,  etc.     Moreover,  the  signature  of  the  music 


100        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

as  indicated  by  the  sharps  or  flats  changes  the  whole 
situation.  If  the  music  is  written  in  "  A  sharp  "  then 
when  "  A  "  is  indicated  on  the  staff,  we  must  not  strike 
the  white  key  known  as  "A,"  but  the  black  key  just 
above,  known  as  "  A  sharp." 

Briefly,  in  piano  playing,  the  stimulus  comes  from 
the  characters  printed  on  the  staff.  The  movements 
which  these  characters  direct  are  very  complicated  and 
require  months  and  years  of  practice.  We  must  em- 
phasize the  fact  that  practice  alone  gives  facility, 
years  of  practice.  But  after  these  years  of  practice, 
one  can  play  a  piece  of  music  at  sight ;  that  is,  the  first 
stimulus  sets  off  perfectly  a  very  complicated  response. 
This  sort  of  performance  is  one  of  the  highest  feats  of 
skill  that  man  accomplishes. 

To  get  skill,  then,  one  must  practice.  But  mere 
repetition  is  not  sufficient.  For  practice  to  be  most 
effective,  one  must  put  his  whole  mind  on  what  he  is 
doing.  If  he  divides  his  attention  between  the  acts 
which  he  is  practicing  and  something  else,  the  effect 
of  the  practice  in  fixing  and  perfecting  the  habit  is 
slight.  It  seems  that  when  we  are  building  up  a  new 
nerve-path  which  is  to  be  the  basis  of  a  new  habit,  the 
nervous  energies  should  not  be  divided  ;  that  the  whole 
available  nervous  energy  should  be  devoted  to  the  acts 
which  we  are  repeating.  This  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  when  we  are  practicing  to  establish  a  habit, 
we  should  attend  to  what  we  are  doing  and  to  nothing 
else.  But  after  the  habit-connection  is  once  firmly 
established,  we  can  attend  to  other  things  while  per- 
forming the  habitual  act.  The  habitual  action  will  go 
on  of  itself.  We  may  say,  then,  that  in  order  to  be 
able  to  do  a  thing  with  little  or  no  attention,  we  must 
give  much  attention  to  it  at  first. 


Habit  101 

Another  important  factor  in  habit-formation  is 
pleasure.  The  act  which  we  are  practicing  must  give 
us  pleasure,  either  while  we  are  doing  it  or  as  a  result. 
Pleasurable  results  hasten  habit-formation.  When  we 
practice  an  act  in  which  we  have  no  interest,  we  make 
slow  progress  or  none  at  all.  Now  the  elements  of 
interest  are  attention  and  pleasure.  If  we  voluntarily 
attend  to  a  thing  and  its  performance  gives  us  pleasure, 
or  pleasure  results  from  it,  we  say  we  are  interested  in 
it.  The  secret  of  successful  practice  is  interest.  Re- 
peatedly in  laboratory  experiments  it  happens  that  a 
student  loses  interest  in  the  performance  and  subse- 
quently makes  little,  if  any,  progress.  One  of  the 
biggest  problems  connected  with  habit-formation  is 
that  of  maintaining  interest. 

A  factor  which  prevents  the  formation  of  habits  is 
that  of  exceptions.  If  a  stimulus,  instead  of  going 
over  to  the  appropriate  response,  produces  some  other 
action,  there  is  an  interference  in  the  formation  of  the 
desired  habit.  The  effect  of  an  exception  is  greater 
than  the  mere  neglect  of  practice.  The  exception  opens 
up  another  path  and  tends  to  make  future  action  uncer- 
tain. Particularly  is  this  true  in  the  case  of  moral 
habits.  Forming  moral  habits  is  usually  uphill  work 
anyway,  in  that  we  have  instincts  to  overcome.  Allow- 
ing exceptions  to  enter,  in  the  moral  sphere,  usually 
means  a  slipping  back  into  an  old  way  of  acting,  thereby 
weakening  much  the  newly-made  connection. 

In  any  kind  of  practice,  when  we  become  fatigued 
we  make  errors.  If  we  continue  to  practice  when 
fatigued,  we  form  connections  which  we  do  not  wish 
to  make  and  which  interfere  with  the  desired  habits. 

Economy  of  Practice.  The  principles  which  we  have 
enumerated  and  illustrated  are  fairly  general  and  of 


102        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

universal  validity.  There  are  certain  other  factors 
which  we  may  discuss  here  under  the  head  of  economical 
procedure.  To  form  a  habit,  we  must  practice.  But 
how  long  should  we  practice  at  one  time?  This  is  an 
experimental  problem  and  has  been  definitely  solved. 
It  has  been  proved  by  experiment  that  we  can  practice 
profitably  for  as  long  a  time  as  we  can  maintain  a  high 
degree  of  attention,  which  is  usually  till  we  become 
fatigued.  This  time  is  not  the  same  for  all  people.  It 
varies  with  age,  and  in  the  case  of  the  same  person  it 
varies  at  different  times.  If  ordinary  college  students 
work  at  habit-formation  at  the  highest  point  of  con- 
centration, they  get  the  best  return  for  a  period  of 
about  a  half  hour.  It  depends  somewhat  on  the  amount 
of  concentration  required  for  the  work  and  the  stage  of 
fixation  of  the  habit,  i.e.  whether  one  has  just  begun 
to  form  the  habit  or  whether  it  is  pretty  well  fixed. 
For  children,  the  period  of  successful  practice  is  usually 
much  less  than  a  half  hour  —  five,  ten,  fifteen,  twenty 
minutes,  depending  upon  the  age  of  the  child  and  the 
kind  of  work. 

The  best  interval  between  periods  of  practice  is  the 
day,  twenty-four  hours.  If  one  practices  in  the  morn- 
ing for  a  half  hour,  one  can  practice  again  in  the  after- 
noon with  nearly  as  much  return  as  he  would  secure 
the  next  day,  but  not  quite.  In  general,  practice  is 
better,  gives  more  return,  if  spread  out.  To  practice 
one  day  as  long  as  one  can  work  at  a  high  point  of 
efficiency,  and  then  to  postpone  further  practice  till 
the  next  day,  gives  one  the  most  return  for  the  time 
put  in.  But  if  one  is  in  a  hurry  to  form  a  habit,  one 
can  afford  to  practice  more  each  day  even  if  the  returns 
from  the  practice  do  diminish  proportionately. 

This  matter  has  been  tried  out  on  the  typewriter. 


Habit  103 

If  one  practices  for  ten  half  hours  a  day  with  half- 
hour  rests  between,  one  does  not  get  so  much  return 
for  his  time  as  he  would  if  he  should  spread  it  out  at 
the  rate  of  one  or  two  half-hour  practices  a  day.  But 
by  working  ten  half  hours  a  day,  one  gets  much  more 
efficiency  in  the  same  number  of  days  than  if  he  should 
practice  only  one  or  two  half  hours  a  day.  This  point 
must  not  be  misunderstood.  We  do  not  mean  that 
one  must  not  work  at  anything  longer  than  a  half  hour 
a  day.  We  mean  that  if  one  is  forming  a  habit,  his 
time  counts  for  more  in  forming  the  habit  if  spread 
out  at  the  rate  of  a  half  hour  or  an  hour  a  day,  than  it 
does  if  put  in  at  a  faster  rate.  Therefore  if  one  is  in 
no  hurry  and  can  afford  to  spread  out  his  time,  he  gets 
the  best  return  by  so  doing,  and  the  habit  is  more 
firmly  fixed  than  if  formed  hurriedly.  But  if  one  is  in 
a  hurry,  and  has  the  time  to  devote  to  it,  he  can  afford 
to  concentrate  his  practice  up  to  five  hours  or  possibly 
more  in  a  day,  provided  that  rest  intervals  are  inter- 
spersed between  periods  of  practice. 

There  is  one  time  in  habit-formation  when  concen- 
trated practice  is  most  efficient.  That  is  at  the  begin- 
ning. In  a  process  as  complicated  as  typewriting,  so 
little  impression  is  made  at  the  beginning  by  a  short 
period  of  practice  that  progress  is  but  slight.  On  the 
first  day,  one  should  practice  about  four  or  five  times 
to  secure  the  best  returns,  a  half  hour  each  time. 

What  the  Teacher  Can  Do.  Now,  let  us  see  how 
the  teacher  can  be  of  assistance  to  the  pupil  in  habit- 
formation.  The  teacher  should  have  a  clear  idea  of 
the  nature  of  the  habit  to  be  formed  and  should  demon- 
strate the  habit  to  the  pupil.  Suppose  the  habit  is  so 
simple  a  thing  as  long  division.  The  teacher  should 
explain  each  step  in  the  process.     She  should  go  to  the 


104        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

blackboard  and  actually  solve  a  number  of  problems  in 
long  division,  so  that  the  pupils  can  see  just  how  to  do  it. 
After  this  the  pupils  should  go  to  the  board  and  solve 
a  problem  themselves.  The  reason  for  this  procedure 
is  that  it  is  most  economical.  If  the  children  are  left 
to  get  the  method  of  doing  long  division  from  a  book, 
they  will  not  be  able  to  do  it  readily  and  will  make 
mistakes.  A  teacher  can  explain  a  process  better  than 
it  can  be  explained  in  a  book.  By  giving  a  full  expla- 
nation and  demonstration  and  then  by  requiring  the 
children  to  work  a  few  problems  while  she  watches  for 
mistakes,  correcting  them  at  once,  the  teacher  secures 
economy  of  effort  and  time.  The  first  step  is  to  dem- 
onstrate the  habit  to  the  pupils ;  the  second,  to  have 
them  do  the  act,  whatever  it  is,  correcting  their  mis- 
takes; the  third,  to  require  the  pupils  to  practice  till 
they  have  acquired  skill.  The  teacher  must  make  pro- 
vision for  practice. 

What  Parents  Can  Do.  Parents  can  be  of  very 
great  assistance  to  childi*en  who  are  forming  habits. 

(1)  They  can  cooperate  with  the  school,  which  is 
directing  the  child  in  the  systematic  formation  of  a 
great  system  of  habits.  The  teacher  should  explain 
these  habits  to  the  parents  so  that  they  may  know 
what  the  teacher  is  trying  to  do.  Quite  often  the 
home  and  the  school  are  working  at  cross  purposes. 
The  only  way  to  prevent  this  is  for  them  to  work  in 
the  closest  cooperation,  with  the  fullest  understanding 
of  what  is  being  undertaken  for  the  child.  Parents 
and  teachers  should  often  meet  together  and  talk  over 
the  work  of  training  the  children  of  the  community. 
Parents  should  have  not  merely  a  general  understand- 
ing of  the  work  of  the  school,  but  they  should  know  the 
details  undertaken.     The  school  often  assigns  practice 


Habit  105 

work  to  be  done  at  home  in  reading,  writing,  arith- 
metic. Parents  should  always  know  of  these  assign- 
ments and  should  help  the  children  get  the  necessary- 
practice.  They  can  do  this  by  reminding  the  child  of 
the  work,  by  preparing  a  suitable  place  where  the  work 
may  be  done,  and  by  securing  quiet  for  the  practice. 
Children  like  play  and  it  is  easy  for  them  to  forget  their 
necessary  work.  Parents  can  be  of  the  greatest  service 
to  childhood  and  youth  by  holding  the  children  to 
their  responsibilities  and  duties. 

Few  parents  take  any  thought  of  whether  their  chil- 
dren are  doing  all  possible  for  their  school  progress. 
Few  of  those  who  do,  make  definite  plans  and  arrange- 
ments for  the  children  to  accomplish  the  necessary 
practice  and  study.  This  is  the  parent's  duty  and  re- 
sponsibility. Moreover,  parents  are  likely  to  feel  that 
children  have  no  rights,  and  think  nothing  of  calling  on 
them  in  the  midst  of  their  work  to  do  some  errand. 
Now,  children  should  work  about  the  house  and  help 
their  parents,  but  there  should  be  a  time  for  this  and  a 
separate  time  for  study  and  practice  on  school  work. 

When  a  child  sits  down  for  serious  practice  on  some 
work,  his  time  should  be  sacred  and  inviolable.  In- 
stead of  interfering  with  the  child,  the  parents  should 
do  everything  in  their  power  to  make  this  practice 
possible  and  efficient.  In  their  relations  with  their 
children  perhaps  parents  sin  more  in  the  matter  of 
neglecting  to  plan  for  them  than  in  any  other  way. 
They  plan  for  everything  else,  but  they  let  their  chil- 
dren grow  up,  having  taken  no  definite  thought  about 
helping  them  to  form  their  life  habits  and  to  establish 
these  habits  by  practice.  When  a  child  comes  home 
from  school,  the  mother  should  find  out  just  what  work 
is  to  be  done  before  the  next  day  and  should  plan  the 


106        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

child's  play  and  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  include  all 
necessary  practice.  If  all  parents  would  do  this,  the 
value  to  the  work  of  the  school  and  to  the  life  of  the 
child  would  be  incalculable. 

(2)  Just  as  one  of  the  main  purposes  of  the  teacher  is 
to  help  the  child  gain  initiative,  so  it  is  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  parents'  duties.  Parents  must  help 
the  children  to  keep  their  purposes  before  them. 
Children  forget,  even  when  they  wish  to  remember. 
Often,  they  do  not  want  to  remember.  The  parents' 
duty  is  to  get  the  child  to  want  to  remember,  and  to 
help  him  to  remember,  whether  he  wants  to  or  not. 
One  of  the  main  differences  between  childhood  and 
maturity  is  that  the  child  lives  in  the  present,  his  pur- 
poses are  all  immediate  ones.  Habits  always  look  for- 
ward, they  are  for  future  good  and  use.  Mature  people 
have  learned  to  look  forward  and  to  plan  for  the  future. 
They  must,  therefore,  perform  this  function  for  the 
children.  They  must  look  forward  and  see  what  the 
child  should  learn  to  do,  and  then  see  that  he  learns 
to  do  it. 

(3)  Parents  must  help  children  to  plan  their  lives  in 
general  and  in  detail ;  i.e.  in  the  sense  of  determining 
the  ideals  and  habits  that  will  be  necessary  for  those 
lives.  The  parents  must  do  this  with  the  help  of  the 
child.  The  child  must  not  be  a  blind  follower,  but  as 
the  child's  mind  becomes  mature  enough,  the  parent 
must  explain  the  matter  of  forming  life  habits,  and 
must  show  the  child  that  life  is  a  structure  that  he 
himself  is  to  build.  Life  will  be  what  he  makes  it,  and 
the  time  for  forming  character  is  during  early  years. 
The  parent  must  not  only  tell  the  child  this  but  must 
help  him  to  realize  the  truth  of  it,  must  help  him  con- 
tinually, consistently. 


Habit  107 

(4)  Of  course  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the 
parent  can  help  much,  perhaps  most,  by  example. 
The  parent  must  not  only  tell  the  child  what  to  do 
but  must  show  him  how  it  should  be  done. 

(5)  Parents  can  help  in  the  ways  mentioned  above, 
but  they  can  also  help  by  cooperating  among  themselves 
in  planning  for  the  training  of  the  children  of  the  com- 
munity. One  parent  cannot  train  his  children  inde- 
pendently of  all  the  other  people  in  the  community. 
There  must  be  a  certain  unity  of  ideals  and  aims. 
Therefore,  not  only  is  there  need  for  cooperation 
between  parents  and  teachers  but  among  parents 
themselves.  Although  they  cooperate  in  everything 
else,  they  seldom  do  in  the  training  of  their  children. 
The  people  of  a  community  should  meet  together  occa- 
sionally to  plan  for  this  common  work. 

Importance  of  Habit  in  Education  and  Life.  A  man 
is  the  sum  of  his  habits  and  ideals.  He  has  language 
habits ;  he  speaks  German,  or  French,  or  English.  He 
has  writing  habits,  spelling  habits,  reading  habits, 
arithmetic  habits.  He  has  political  habits,  religious 
habits.  He  has  various  social  habits,  habitual  atti- 
tudes which  he  takes  toward  his  fellows.  He  has  moral 
habits  —  he  is  honest  and  truthful,  or  he  is  dishonest 
and  untruthful.  He  always  looks  on  the  bright  side, 
or  else  on  the  dark  side  of  events.  All  these  habits 
and  many  more,  he  has.  They  are  structures  which  he 
has  built.  One's  life,  then,  is  the  sum  of  his  tendencies, 
and  these  tendencies  one  establishes  in  early  life. 

This  view  gives  an  importance  to  the  work  of  the 
school  which  is  derived  from  no  other  view.  The 
school  is  not  a  place  where  we  get  this  little  bit  of  in- 
formation, or  the  other.  It  is  the  place  where  we  are 
molded,  formed,  and  shaped  into  the  beings  we  are 


108        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

to  be.  The  school  has  not  risen  to  see  the  real  im- 
portance of  its  work.  Its  aims  have  been  low  and  its 
achievements  much  lower  than  its  aims.  Teachers 
should  rise  to  the  importance  of  their  calling.  Their 
work  is  that  of  gods.  They  are  creators.  They  do 
not  make  the  child.  They  do  not  give  it  memory  or 
attention  or  imagination.  But  they  are  creators  of 
tendencies,  prejudices,  religions,  politics,  and  other 
habits  unnumbered.  So  that  in  a  very  real  sense,  the 
school,  with  all  the  other  educational  influences,  makes 
the  man.  We  do  not  give  a  child  the  capacity  to  learn, 
but  we  can  determine  what  he  shall  learn.  We  do  not 
give  him  memory,  but  we  can  select  what  he  shall 
remember.  We  do  not  make  the  child  as  he  is  at  the 
beginning,  but  we  can,  in  large  measure,  determine  the 
world  of  influences  which  complete  the  task  of  making. 

In  the  early  part  of  life  every  day  and  every  hour  of 
the  day  establishes  and  strengthens  tendencies.  Every 
year  these  tendencies  become  stronger.  Every  year 
after  maturity,  we  resist  change.  By  twenty-five  or 
thirty,  "  character  has  set  like  plaster."  The  general 
attitude  and  view  of  the  world  which  we  have  at 
maturity,  we  are  to  hold  throughout  life.  Very  few 
men  fundamentally  change  after  this.  It  takes  a  tre- 
mendous influence  and  an  unusual  situation  to  break 
one  up  and  make  him  an  essentially  different  man 
after  maturity.  Every  year  a  "  crank "  becomes 
"  crankier." 

It  is  well  that  this  is  so.  Everything  in  the  world 
costs  its  price.  Rigidity  is  the  price  we  pay  for  effi- 
ciency. In  order  to  be  efficient,  we  must  make  habitual 
the  necessary  movements.  After  they  are  habituated, 
they  resist  change.  But  habit  makes  for  regularity 
and  order.     We  could  not  live  in  society  unless  there 


Habit  109 

were  regularity,  order,  fixity.  Habit  makes  for  con- 
servatism. But  conservatism  is  necessary  for  order. 
In  a  sense,  habit  works  against  progress.  But  per- 
manent improvement  without  habit  would  be  impos- 
sible, for  permanent  progress  depends  upon  holding 
what  we  gain.  It  is  well  for  society  that  we  are  con- 
servative. We  could  not  live  in  the  chaos  that  would 
exist  without  habit.  Public  opinion  resists  change. 
People  refuse  to  accept  a  view  that  is  different  from 
the  one  they  have  held.  We  could  get  nowhere  if  we 
continually  changed,  and  it  is  well  for  us  that  we  con- 
tinue to  do  the  old  way  to  which  we  have  become 
accustomed,  till  a  new  and  better  one  is  shown  beyond 
doubt.  Even  then,  it  is  probably  better  for  an  old 
person  to  continue  to  use  the  accustomed  methods  of  a 
lifetime.  Although  better  methods  are  developed, 
they  will  not  be  so  good  for  the  old  person  as  those 
modes  of  action  that  he  is  used  to.  The  possibility 
of  progress  is  through  new  methods  which  come  in  with 
each  succeeding  generation. 

When  we  become  old  we  are  not  willing  to  change, 
but  the  more  reasonable  of  us  are  willing  that  our 
children  should  be  taught  a  better  way.  Some- 
times, of  course,  we  find  people  who  say  that  what  was 
good  enough  for  them  is  good  enough  for  their  children. 
Most  of  us  think  better,  and  wish  to  give  our  children 
a  "  better  bringing  up  than  ours  has  been." 

These  considerations  make  clear  the  importance  of 
habit  in  life.  They  should  also  make  clear  a  very  im- 
portant corollary.  If  habits  are  important  in  life, 
then  it  is  the  duty  of  parents  and  teachers  to  make  a 
careful  selection  of  the  habits  that  are  to  be  formed 
by  the  children.  The  habits  that  will  be  necessary  for 
the  child  to  form  in  order  to  meet  the  various  situa- 


110        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

tions  of  his  future  life,  should  be  determined.  There 
should  be  no  vagueness  about  it.  Definite  habits, 
social,  moral,  religious,  intellectual,  professional,  etc., 
will  be  necessary  for  efficiency.  We  should  know  what 
these  various  habits  are,  and  should  then  set  about 
the  work  of  establishing  them  with  system  and  deter- 
mination, just  as  we  would  the  building  of  a  house. 
Much  school  work  and  much  home  training  is  vague, 
indefinite,  uncertain,  done  without  a  clear  understand- 
ing of  the  needs  or  of  the  results.  We  therefore  waste 
time,  years  of  the  child's  life,  and  the  results  are  un- 
satisfactory. 

Drill  in  School  Subjects.  In  many  school  subjects, 
the  main  object  is  to  acquire  skill  in  certain  processes. 
As  previously  explained,  we  can  become  skillful  in  an 
act  only  by  repetition  of  the  act.  Therefore,  in  those 
subjects  in  whicnthe  main  object  is  the  acquiring  of 
skill,  there  must  be  much  repetition.  This  repetition 
is  called  drill.  The  matter  of  economical  procedure 
in  drill  has  already  been  considered,  but  there  are  cer- 
tain problems  connected  with  drill  that  must  be 
further  discussed. 

Drill  is  usually  the  hardest  part  of  school  work. 
It  becomes  monotonous  and  tiresome.  Moreover, 
drill  is  always  a  means.  It  is  the  means  by  which  we 
become  efficient.  Take  writing,  for  example.  It  is 
not  an  end  in  itself ;  it  is  the  means  by  which  we  convey 
thoughts.  Reading  is  a  means  by  which  we  are  able 
to  get  the  thought  of  another.  In  acquiring  a  foreign 
language,  we  have  first  to  master  the  elementary  tools 
that  will  enable  us  to  make  the  thought  of  the  foreign 
language  our  own. 

It  seems  that  the  hardest  part  of  education  always 
comes  first,  when  we  are  least  able  to  do  it.     It  used 


Habit  111 

to  be  that  nearly  all  the  work  of  the  school  was  drill. 
There  was  little  school  work  that  was  interesting  in 
itself.  In  revolt  against  this  kind  of  school,  many 
modern  educators  have  tried  to  plan  a  curriculum  that 
would  be  interesting  to  the  child.  In  schools  that 
follow  this  idea,  there  is  little  or  no  drill,  pure  and  simple. 
There  is  no  work  that  is  done  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
acquiring  skill.  The  work  is  so  planned  that,  in  pur- 
suing it,  the  child  will  of  necessity  have  to  perform  the 
necessary  acts  and  will  thereby  gain  efficiency.  In 
arithmetic,  there  is  no  adding,  subtracting,  multiply- 
ing, or  dividing,  only  as  such  things  must  be  done  in 
the  performance  of  something  else  that  is  interesting 
in  itself.  For  example,  the  child  plays  store  and 
must  add  up  the  sales.  The  child  plays  bean  bag  and 
must  add  up  the  score.  Practice  gained  in  this  indirect 
way  is  known  as  incidental  drill.  Direct  drill  consists 
in  making  a  direct  approach;  we  wish  to  be  efficient 
at  adding,  so  we  practice  adding  as  such  and  not  merely 
as  incidental  to  something  else. 

This  plan  of  incidental  drill  is  in  harmony  with  the 
principle  of  interest  previously  explained.  There  are 
several  things,  however,  that  must  be  considered. 
The  proper  procedure  would  seem  to  be  to  look  for- 
ward and  find  out  in  what  directions  the  child  will 
need  to  acquire  skill  and  then  to  help  him  acquire  it 
in  the  most  economical  way  and  at  the  proper  time. 
Nature  has  so  made  us  that  we  like  to  do  a  new  trick. 
When  we  have  taught  a  child  how  to  add  and  subtract, 
he  likes  to  perform  these  operations  because  the  opera- 
tions themselves  give  pleasure.  Therefore  much  repe- 
tition can  be  allowed  and  much  skill  acquired  by  a 
direct  approach  to  the  practice.  When  interest  drags, 
incidental  drill  can  be  fallen  back  upon  to  help  out  the 


112         The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


interest.  Children  should  be  taught  that  certain  things 
must  be  done,  certain  skill  must  be  acquired.  They 
should  accept  some  things  on  the  authority  of  elders. 
They  should  be  taught  to  apply  themselves  and  to 
give  their  whole  attention  to  a  thing  that  must  be  done. 
A  desire  for  efficiency  can  be  developed  in  them.  The 
spirit  of  competition  can  sometimes  be  effectively  used 
to  add  interest  to  drill.  Of  course,  interest  and  atten- 
tion there  must  be,  and  if  it  cannot  be  secured  in  one 
way,  it  must  be  in  another. 

Experiments  have  abundantly  shown  the  value  of 
formal  drill,  that  is  to  say,  drill  for  drill's  sake.  If  an 
arithmetic  class  is  divided,  one  half  being  given  a  few 
minutes'  drill  on  the  fundamental  operations  each  day 
but  otherwise  doing  exactly  the  same  work  as  the  other 
half  of  the  class,  the  half  receiving  the  drill  acquires 
much  more  skill  in  the  fundamental  operations  and, 
besides,  is  better  at  reasoning  out  problems  than  the 
half  that  had  no  drill.  The  explanation  of  the  latter 
fact  is  doubtless  that  the  pupils  receiving  the  drill  ac- 
quire such  efficiency  in  the  fundamental  operations 
that  these  cause  no  trouble,  leaving  all  the  energies  of 
the  pupils  for  reasoning  out  the  problems. 

It  has  been  shown  experimentally  that  a  direct 
method  of  teaching  spelling  is  more  efficient  than  an 
indirect  method.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such 
turns  out  to  be  the  case.  For  in  a  direct  approach,  the 
act  that  we  are  trying  to  habituate  is  brought  more 
directly  before  consciousness,  receiving  that  focal  atten- 
tion which  is  necessary  for  the  most  efficient  practice 
in  habit-formation.  If  one  wishes  to  be  a  good  ball 
pitcher,  one  begins  to  pitch  balls,  and  continues  pitch- 
ing balls  day  after  day,  morning,  noon,  and  night. 
One  does  not  go  about  it  indirectly.     If  one  wishes  to 


Habit  113 

be  a  good  shot  with  a  rifle,  one  gets  a  rifle  and  goes  to 
shooting.  Similarly,  if  one  wishes  to  be  a  good  adder, 
the  way  to  do  is  to  begin  adding,  not  to  begin  doing 
something  else.  Of  course  any  method  that  will  in- 
duce a  child  to  realize  that  he  ought  to  acquire  a  cer- 
tain habit,  is  right  and  proper.  We  must  do  all  we 
can  to  give  a  child  a  desire,  an  interest  in  the  thing  that 
he  is  trying  to  do.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
thing  should  not  be  faced  directly. 

Rules  for  Habit  Formation.  In  the  light  of  the 
various  principles  which  we  have  discussed,  what  rules 
can  be  given  to  one  forming  habits?  The  evident 
answer  is,  to  proceed  in  accordance  with  established 
principles.  We  may,  however,  bring  the  most  im- 
portant of  these  principles  together  in  the  form  of  rules 
which  can  serve  as  a  guide  and  help  to  one  forming 
habits. 

(1)  Get  initiative.  By  this  is  meant  that  a  person 
forming  a  habit  should  have  some  sustaining  reason 
for  doing  it,  some  end  that  is  being  sought.  This 
principle  will  be  of  very  little  use  to  young  children, 
only  to  those  old  enough  to  appreciate  reasons  and  ends. 
In  arithmetic,  for  example,  a  child  should  be  shown 
what  can  be  accomplished  if  he  possesses  certain  skill 
in  addition,  subtraction,  and  multiplication.  It  is 
not  always  possible  for  a  young  person  to  see  why  a 
certain  habit  should  be  formed.  For  the  youngest 
children,  the  practice  must  be  in  the  form  of  play.  But 
when  a  child  is  old  enough  to  think,  to  have  ideals  and 
purposes,  reasons  and  explanations  should  be  worked 
out. 

(2)  Get  practice.  If  you  are  to  have  skill,  you  must 
practice.  Practice  regularly,  practice  hard  while  you 
are  doing  it.     Throw  your  whole  life  into  it,  as  if  what 


114        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

you  are  doing  is  the  most  important  thing  in  the  world. 
Practice  under  good  conditions.  Do  not  think  that 
just  any  kind  of  practice  will  do.  Try  to  make  condi- 
tions such  that  they  will  enable  you  to  do  your  best 
work.  Such  conditions  will  not  happen  by  chance. 
You  must  make  them  happen.  You  must  make  con- 
ditions favorable.  You  must  seek  opportunities  to 
practice.  You  must  realize  that  your  life  is  in  the  mak- 
ing, that  you  are  making  it,  that  it  is  to  a  large  extent 
composed  of  habits.  These  habits  you  are  building. 
They  are  built  only  by  practice.  Get  practice.  When 
practicing,  fulfill  the  psychological  conditions.  Work 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  as  to  length 
of  periods,  intervals,  etc. 

(3)  Allow  no  exceptions.  You  should  fully  realize  the 
great  influence  of  exceptions.  When  you  start  in  to 
form  a  habit,  allow  nothing  to  turn  you  from  your 
course.  Whether  the  habit  is  some  fundamental 
moral  habit  or  the  multiplication  table,  be  consistent, 
do  not  vacillate.  Nothing  is  so  strong  as  consistent 
action,  nothing  so  weak  as  doubtful,  wavering,  un- 
certain action.  Have  the  persistence  of  a  bull  dog 
and  the  regularity  of  planetary  motion. 

Transfer  of  Training.  Our  problem  now  is  to  find 
out  whether  forming  one  habit  helps  one  to  form  an- 
other. In  some  cases  it  does.  The  results  of  a  recent 
experiment  performed  in  the  laboratory  of  educational 
psychology  in  the  University  of  Missouri,  will  show 
what  is  meant.  It  was  found  that  if  a  person  prac- 
ticed distributing  cards  into  pigeon  holes  till  great  pro- 
ficiency was  attained,  and  then  the  numbering  of  the 
boxes  or  pigeon  holes  was  changed,  the  person  could 
learn  the  new  numbering  and  gain  proficiency  in  dis- 
tributing the  cards  in  the  new  way  more  quickly  than 


Habit  115 

was  the  case  at  first.  Similarly,  if  one  learns  to  run  a 
typewriter  with  a  certain  form  of  keyboard,  one  can 
learn  to  operate  a  different  keyboard  much  more 
quickly  than  was  the  case  in  learning  the  first  key- 
board. 

It  is  probable  that  the  explanation  of  this  apparent 
transfer  is  that  there  are  common  elements  in  the  two 
cases.  Certain  bonds  established  in  the  first  habit  are 
available  in  the  second.  In  the  case  of  distributing 
the  cards,  many  such  common  elements  can  be  made 
out.  One  gains  facility  in  reading  the  numbering  of 
the  cards.  The  actual  movement  of  the  hand  in  get- 
ting to  a  particular  box  is  the  same  whatever  the  num- 
ber of  the  box.  One  acquires  schemes  of  associating 
and  locating  the  boxes,  schemes  that  will  work  in  both 
cases.  But  suppose  that  one  spends  fifteen  days  in" 
distributing  cards  according  to  one  scheme  of  number- 
ing, and  then  changes  the  numbering  and  practices 
for  fifteen  days  with  the  new  numbering,  at  the  end  of 
the  second  fifteen  days  one  has  more  skill  than  at  the 
close  of  the  first  fifteen  days.  In  fact,  in  five  days  one 
has  as  much  skill  in  the  new  method  as  was  acquired 
in  fifteen  days  in  the  first  method.  However,  and  this 
is  an  important  point,  the  speed  in  the  new  way  is  not 
so  great  as  the  speed  acquired  in  thirty  days  using  one 
method  or  one  scheme  all  the  time.  Direct  practice 
on  the  specific  habit  involved  is  always  most  efficient. 

One  should  probably  never  learn  one  thing  just  be- 
cause it  will  help  him  in  learning  something  else,  for 
that  something  else  could  be  more  economically  learned 
by  direct  practice.  Learning  one  language  probably 
helps  in  learning  another.  A  year  spent  in  learning 
German  will  probably  help  in  learning  French.  But 
two  years  spent  in  learning  French  will  give  more  effi- 


116       The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

ciency  in  French  than  will  be  acquired  by  spending 
one  year  on  German  and  then  one  year  on  French.  If 
the  only  reason  for  a  study  is  that  it  helps  in  learning 
something  else,  then  this  study  should  be  left  out  of 
the  curriculum.  If  the  only  reason  for  studying  Latin, 
for  example,  is  that  it  helps  in  studying  English,  or 
French,  or  helps  in  grammar,  or  gives  one  a  larger 
vocabulary  in  English  on  account  of  a  knowledge  of 
the  Latin  roots,  then  the  study  of  the  language  cannot 
be  justified  ;  for  all  of  these  results  could  be  much  more 
economically  and  better  attained  by  a  direct  approach. 
Of  course,  if  Latin  has  a  justification  in  itself,  then  these 
by-products  are  not  to  be  despised. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that  habits  are  very  specific 
things.  A  definite  stimulus  goes  over  to  a  definite 
response.  We  must  decide  what  habits  we  need  to 
have  established,  and  then  by  direct  and  economical 
practice  establish  these  habits.  It  is  true  that  in 
pursuing  some  studies,  we  acquire  habits  that  are  of 
much  greater  applicability  in  the  affairs  of  life  than 
can  be  obtained  from  other  studies.  When  one  has 
acquired  the  various  adding  habits,  he  has  kinds  of 
skill  that  will  be  of  use  in  almost  everything  that  is 
undertaken  later.  So  also  speaking  habits,  writing 
habits,  spelling  habits,  moral  habits,  etc.,  are  of  uni- 
versal applicability.  Whenever  one  undertakes  to  do 
a  thing  that  involves  some  habit  already  formed,  that 
thing  is  more  easily  done  by  virtue  of  that  habit.  One 
could  not  very  well  learn  to  multiply  one  number  by 
another,  such  as  8,675,489  by  439,857,  without  first 
learning  to  add. 

This  seems  to  be  all  there  is  to  the  idea  of  the  trans- 
fer of  training.  One  gets  an  act,  or  an  idea,  or  an 
attitude,  or  a  point  of  view  that  is  available  in  a  new 


Habit  117 

thing,  thereby  making  the  new  thing  easier.  The 
methods  one  would  acquire  in  the  study  of  zoology 
would  be,  many  of  them,  directly  applicable  in  the 
study  of  botany.  But,  just  as  truly,  one  can  acquire 
habits  in  doing  one  thing  that  will  be  a  direct  hindrance 
in  learning  another  thing.  Knocking  a  baseball  unfits 
one  for  knocking  a  tennis  ball.  The  study  of  literature 
and  philosophy  probably  unfits  one  for  the  study  of 
an  experimental  science  because  the  methods  are  so 
dissimilar,  in  some  measure  antagonistic. 

Habit  and  Moral  Training.  By  moral  training,  we 
mean  that  training  which  prepares  one  to  live  among 
his  fellows.  It  is  a  training  that  prepares  us  to  act 
in  our  relations  with  our  fellow  men  in  such  a  way  as 
to  bring  happiness  to  our  neighbors  as  well  as  to  our- 
selves. Specifically,  it  is  a  training  in  honesty,  truth- 
fulness, sympathy,  and  industry.  There  are  other 
factors  of  morality  but  these  are  the  most  important. 
It  is  evident  at  once  that  moral  training  is  the  most 
important  of  all  training.  This  is,  at  any  rate,  the  view 
taken  by  society ;  for  if  a  man  falls  short  in  his  relations 
with  his  fellows,  he  is  punished.  If  the  extent  of  his 
falling  is  very  great,  his  liberty  is  entirely  taken  away 
from  him.  In  some  cases,  he  is  put  to  death.  Moral 
training,  in  addition  to  being  the  most  important,  is  also 
the  most  difficult.  What  the  public  schools  can  do  in 
this  field  is  quite  limited.  The  training  which  the  child 
gets  on  the  streets  and  at  home  almost  overshadows  it. 

Nature  of  Moral  Training.  A  good  person  is  one 
who  does  the  right  social  thing  at  the  ljjght  time.  The 
more  completely  and  consistently  one  does  this,  the 
better  one  is.  What  kind  of  training  can  one  receive 
that  will  give  assurance  of  appropriate  moral  action? 
Two  things  can  be  done  to  give  a  child  this  assurance. 


118        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

The  child  can  be  led  to  form  proper  ideals  of  action 
and  proper  habits  of  action.  By  ideal  of  action,  we 
mean  that  the  child  should  know  what  the  right  action 
is,  and  have  a  desire  to  do  it.  Habits  of  action  are 
acquired  only  through  action.  As  has  been  pointed 
out  in  the  preceding  pages,  continued  action  of  a  defi- 
nite kind  develops  a  tendency  to  this  particular  action. 
One's  character  is  the  sum  of  his  tendencies  to  action. 
These  tendencies  can  be  developed  only  through  prac- 
tice, through  repetition.  Moral  training,  therefore, 
has  the  same  basis  as  all  other  training,  that  is,  in 
habits.  The  same  procedure  that  we  use  in  teaching 
the  child  the  multiplication  table  is  the  one  to  use  in 
developing  honesty.  In  the  case  of  the  tables,  we 
have  the  child  say  "  fifty-six "  for  "  eight  times 
seven."  We  have  him  do  this  till  he  does  it  instantly, 
automatically.  Honesty  and  truthfulness  and  the 
other  moral  virtues  can  be  fixed  in  the  same  way. 

Home  and  Moral  Training.  The  home  is  the  most 
important  factor  in  moral  training.  This  is  largely 
because  of  the  importance  of  early  habits  and  attitudes. 
Obedience  to  parents  and  respect  for  authority,  which 
in  a  large  measure  underlie  all  other  moral  training, 
must  be  secured  and  developed  in  the  early  years  of 
childhood.  The  child  does  not  start  to  school  till 
about  six  years  old.  At  this  age  much  of  the  founda- 
tion of  morality  is  laid.  Unless  the  child  learns  strict 
obedience  in  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  life,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  he  will  ever  learn  it  aright.  With- 
out the  habit  of  implicit  obedience,  it  is  difficult  to 
establish  any  other  good  habit. 

Parents  should  understand  that  training  in  morality 
consists,  in  large  measure,  in  building  up  habits,  and 
should  go  about  it  in  a  systematic  way.    As  various 


Habit  119 

situations  arise  in  the  early  life  of  a  child,  the  parents 
should  obtain  from  him  the  appropriate  responses. 
When  the  situations  recur,  the  right  responses  should 
be  again  secured.  Parents  should  continue  to  insist 
upon  these  responses  till  tendencies  are  formed  for  the 
right  response  to  follow  when  the  situation  arises. 
After  continued  repetition,  the  response  comes  auto- 
matically. The  good  man  or  woman  is  the  one  who 
does  the  right  thing  as  the  situation  presents  itself, 
does  it  as  a  matter  of  course  because  it  is  his  nature. 
He  does  not  even  think  of  doing  the  wrong  thing. 

One  of  the  main  factors  in  child  training  is  con- 
sistency. The  parent  must  inflexibly  require  the  right 
action  in  the  appropriate  situation.  Good  habits  will 
not  be  formed  if  parents  insist  on  proper  action  one 
day  but  on  the  next  day  allow  the  child  to  do  differently. 

Parents  must  plan  the  habits  which  they  wish  their 
children  to  form  and  execute  these  plans  systematically, 
exercising  constant  care.  Parents,  and  children  as 
well,  would  profit  from  reading  the  plan  used  by  Frank- 
lin. Farseeing  and  clear-headed,  Franklin  saw  that 
character  is  a  structure  which  one  builds,  so  he  set 
about  this  building  in  a  systematic  way.  For  a  certain 
length  of  time  he  practiced  on  one  virtue,  allowing  no 
exceptions  in  this  one  virtue.  When  this  aspect  of 
his  character  had  acquired  strength,  he  added  another 
virtue  and  then  tried  to  keep  perfect  as  to  both.1 

The  School  and  Moral  Training.  In  this,  as  in  all 
other  forms  of  training,  the  school  is  supplementary 
to  the  home.  The  teacher  should  have  well  in  mind 
the  habits  and  ideals  that  the  home  has  been  trying 
to  develop  and  should  assist  in  strengthening  the  bonds. 
The  school  can  do  much  in  developing  habits  of  kind- 
1  See  Autobiography  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 


120        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

ness  and  sympathy  among  the  children.  It  can  develop 
civic  and  social  ideals  and  habits.  Just  how  it  can 
best  do  this  is  a  question.  Should  moral  ideals  be 
impressed  systematically  and  should  habits  be  formed 
at  the  time  these  ideals  are  impressed,  or  should  the 
different  ideals  be  instilled  and  developed  as  occasion 
demands?  This  is  an  experimental  problem,  and  that 
method  should  be  followed  which  produces  the  best 
results.  It  is  possible  that  one  teacher  may  use  one 
method  best  while  a  different  teacher  will  have  better 
success  with  another  method. 

More  important  than  the  question  of  a  systematic 
or  an  incidental  method  is  the  question  of  making  the 
matter  vital  when  it  is  taken  up.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  mere  knowledge  of  right  action  will 
not  insure  right  action.  In  a  few  hours  one  can  teach 
a  child,  as  matters  of  mere  knowledge,  what  he  should 
do  in  all  the  important  situations  of  life ;  but  this  will 
not  insure  that  he  will  henceforth  do  the  right  things. 

There  are  only  two  ways  by  which  we  can  obtain 
any  assurance  that  right  action  will  come.  The  first 
way  is  to  secure  right  habits  of  response.  We  must 
build  up  tendencies  to  action.  Tendencies  depend 
upon  previous  action.  The  second  way  is  to  help  the 
child  to  analyze  moral  situations  and  see  what  results 
will  follow  upon  the  different  kinds  of  action.  There 
can  be  developed  in  a  child  a  desire  to  do  that  which 
will  bring  joy  and  happiness  to  others,  rather  than 
pain  and  sorrow.  But  this  analysis  of  moral  situa- 
tions is  not  enough  to  insure  right  moral  action ;  there 
must  be  practice  in  doing  the  right  thing.  The  situa- 
tion must  go  over  to  the  right  response  to  insure  its 
going  there  the  next  time.  The  first  thing  in  moral 
training  is  to  develop  habits.     Then,  as  soon  as  the 


Habit  121 

child  is  old  enough  he  can  strengthen  his  habits  by  a 
careful  analysis  of  the  problem  why  one  should  act 
one  way  rather  than  another.  This  adds  motive  ;  and 
motive  gives  strength  and  assurance. 

Summary.  Habits  are  acquired  tendencies  to  specific  actions 
in  definite  situations.  They  are  fixed  through  repetition.  They 
give  us  speed,  accuracy,  and  certainty,  they  save  energy  and  pre- 
vent fatigue.  They  are  performed  with  less  attention  and  become 
pleasurable.  The  main  purpose  of  education  is  to  form  the  habits 
—  moral,  intellectual,  vocational,  cultural  —  necessary  for  life. 
Habits  and  ideals  are  the  basis  of  our  mature  life  and  character. 
Moral  training  is  essentially  like  other  forms  of  training,  habit 
being  the  basis. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Practice  on  the  formation  of  some  habit  until  considerable 
skill  is  acquired.  Draw  a  learning  curve  similar  to  the  one  on 
page  95,  showing  the  increase  in  skill.  A  class  experiment  can 
be  performed  by  the  use  of  a  substitution  test.  Take  letters  to 
represent  the  nine  digits,  then  transcribe  numbers  into  the  letters 
as  described  on  page  192.  Keep  a  record  of  successive  five- 
minute  periods  of  practice  till  all  have  practiced  an  hour.  This 
gives  twelve  practice  periods  for  the  construction  of  a  learning 
curve.  The  individual  experiments  should  be  more  difficult  and 
cover  a  longer  period.  Suitable  experiments  for  individual  prac- 
tice are :  learning  to  operate  a  typewriter,  pitching  marbles  into 
a  hole,  writing  with  the  left  hand,  and  mirror  writing.  The  latter 
is  performed  by  standing  a  mirror  vertically  on  the  table,  placing 
the  paper  in  front  and  writing  in  such  a  way  that  the  letters  have 
the  proper  form  and  appearance  when  seen  in  the  mirror.  The 
subject  should  not  look  at  his  hand  but  at  its  reflection  in  the 
mirror.  A  piece  of  cardboard  can  be  supported  just  over  the 
hand  so  that  only  the  image  of  the  hand  in  the  mirror  can  be  seen. 

2.  A  study  of  the  interference  of  habit  can  be  made  as  follows : 
Take  eight  small  boxes  and  arrange  them  in  a  row.  Number  each 
box  plainly.  Do  not  number  them  consecutively,  but  as  follows, 
5,  7,  1,  8,  2,  3,  6,  4.  Make  eighty  cards,  ten  of  each  number,  and 
number  them  plainly.  Practice  distributing  the  cards  into  the 
boxes.     Note  the  time  required  for  each  distribution.     Continue 


122        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

to  distribute  them  till  considerable  skill  is  acquired.  Then  re- 
arrange the  order  of  the  boxes  and  repeat  the  experiment.  What 
do  the  results  show? 

3.  Does  the  above  experiment  show  any  transfer  of  training? 
Compare  the  time  for  each  distribution  in  the  second  part  of  the 
experiment,  i.e.  after  the  rearrangement  of  the  boxes,  with  the 
time  for  the  corresponding  distribution  in  the  first  part  of  the 
experiment.  The  question  to  be  answered  is:  Are  the  results 
of  the  second  part  of  the  experiment  better  than  they  would 
have  been  if  the  first  part  had  not  been  performed  ?  State  your 
results  and  conclusions  and  compare  with  the  statements  in  the 
text. 

4.  A  study  of  the  effects  of  spreading  out  learning  periods  can 
be  made  as  follows :  Divide  the  class  into  two  equal  divisions. 
Let  one  division  practice  on  a  substitution  experiment  as  explained 
in  Exercise  1,  for  five  ten-minute  periods  of  practice  in  immediate 
succession.  Let  the  other  division  practice  for  five  days,  ten 
minutes  a  day.  What  do  the  results  indicate?  The  divisions 
should  be  of  equal  ability.  If  the  first  ten-minute  practice  period 
shows  the  sections  to  be  of  unequal  ability,  this  fact  should  be 
taken  into  account  in  making  the  comparisons.  Test  sheets  can 
be  prepared  by  the  teacher,  or  they  can  be  obtained  from  the 
Extension  Division  of  the  University  of  Missouri. 

5.  An  experiment  similar  to  No.  4  can  be  performed  by  prac- 
ticing adding  or  any  other  school  exercise.  Care  must  be  taken 
to  control  the  experiment  and  to  eliminate  disturbing  factors. 

6.  Try  the  card-distributing  experiment  with  people  of  dif- 
ferent ages,  young  children,  old  people,  and  various  ages  in  between. 
What  do  you  learn?  Is  it  as  easy  for  an  old  person  to  form  a 
habit  as  it  is  for  a  young  person?     Why? 

7.  If  an  old  person  has  no  old  habits  to  interfere,  can  he  form 
a  new  habit  as  readily  as  can  a  young  person? 

8.  Cite  evidence  from  your  own  experience  to  prove  that  it  is 
hard  for  an  old  person  to  break  up  old  habits  and  form  new  ones 
which  interfere  with  the  old  ones. 

9.  Do  you  find  that  you  are  becoming  "set  in  your  ways?" 

10.  What  do  we  mean  by  saying  that  we  are  "plastic  in  early 
years " ? 

11.  Have  you  planned  your  life  work?  Are  you  establishing 
the  habits  that  will  be  necessary  in  it? 


Habit  123 

12.  Is  it  an  advantage  or  a  disadvantage  to  choose  one's  pro- 
fession or  occupation  early? 

13.  Attention  often  interferes  with  the  performance  of  a  habit- 
ual act.     Why  is  this? 

14.  If  a  man  removes  his  vest  in  the  daytime,  he  is  almost 
sure  to  wind  his  watch.  On  the  other  hand  if  he  is  up  all  night, 
he  lets  his  watch  run  down.     Why? 

15.  Do  you  know  of  people  who  have  radically  changed  their 
views  late  in  life? 

16.  Try  to  teach  a  dog  or  a  cat  a  trick.  What  do  you  learn 
of  importance  about  habit-formation? 

17.  What  branches  taught  in  school  involve  the  formation  of 
habits  that  are  useful  throughout  life? 

18.  Make  a  list  of  the  moral  habits  that  should  be  formed  in 
early  years. 

19.  Write  an  essay  on  Habit  and  Life. 

20.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 

REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS   READING 

Colvin  AND  Bagley  :  Human  Behavior,  Chapters  XI  and  XVII. 
Pillsbury  :  Essentials  of  Psychology,  pp.  48-59  ;  also  Chapter  XV. 
Pyle  :    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  Chapters  X,  XI, 

and  XII. 
Rowe  :   Habit  Formation,  Chapters  V-XIII. 
Titchener  :  A  Beginner's  Psychology,  p.  169,  par.  37. 


CHAPTER  VII 
MEMORY 

Perceptions  and  Ideas.  In  a  previous  chapter, 
brief  mention  *was  made  of  the  difference  between 
perceptions  and  ideas.  This  distinction  must  now  be 
enlarged  upon  and  made  clearer.  Perceptions  arise 
out  of  our  sensory  life.  We  see  things  when  these 
things  are  before  our  eyes.  We  hear  things  when 
these  things  produce  air  vibrations  which  affect  our 
ears.  "  We  smell  things  when  tiny  particles  from  them 
come  into  contact  with  a  small  patch  of  sensitive  mem- 
brane in  our  noses.  We  taste  substances  when  these 
substances  are  in  our  mouths.  Now,  this  seeing, 
hearing,  smelling,  tasting,  etc.,  is  perceiving.  We  per- 
ceive a  thing  when  the  thing  is  actually  at  the  time 
affecting  some  one  or  more  of  our  sense  organs.  A 
perception,  then,  results  from  the  stimulation  of  a 
sense  organ.  Perception  is  the  process  of  perceiving, 
sensing,  objects  in  the  external  world. 

Ideas  are  our  seeming  to  see,  hear,  smell,  taste  things 
when  these  things  are  not  present  to  the  senses.  This 
morning  I  saw,  had  a  perception  of,  a  robin.  To- 
night in  my  study,  I  have  an  idea  of  a  robin.  This 
morning  the  robin  was  present.  Light  reflected  from 
it  stimulated  my  eye.  To-night,  as  I  have  an  idea  of 
the  robin,  it  is  not  here;  I  only  seem  to  see  it.  The 
scene  which  was  mine  this  morning  is  now  revived, 

124 


Memory  125 

reproduced.  We  may  say,  therefore,  that  ideas  are 
the  conscious  representatives  of  objects  which  are  not 
present  to  the  senses.     Ideas  are  revived  experiences. 

Revived  experience  is  memory.  Since  it  is  mem- 
ory that  enables  us  to  live  our  lives  over  again, 
brings  the  past  up  to  the  present,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  aspects  of  our  natures.  The  importance  of 
memory  is  at  once  apparent  if  we  try  to  imagine  what 
life  would  be  without  it.  If  our  life  were  only  percep- 
tual, if  it  were  only  the  sights  and  sounds  and  smells 
and  tastes  of  the  passing  moment,  it  would  have  little 
meaning,  it  would  be  bare  and  empty.  But  instead 
of  our  perceptions  being  our  whole  life,  they  are  only 
the  starting  points  of  life.  Perceptions  serve  to  arouse 
groups  of  memory  images  or  ideas,  and  the  groups 
of  ideas  enrich  the  passing  moment  and  give  meaning 
to  the  passing  perceptions,  which  otherwise  would 
have  no  meaning. 

Suppose  I  am  walking  along  the  street  and  meet  a 
friend.  I  see  him,  speak  to  him,  and  pass  on.  But 
after  I  have  passed  on,  I  have  ideas.  I  think  of  see- 
ing my  friend  the  day  before.  I  think  of  what  he  said 
and  of  what  he  was  doing,  of  what  I  said  and  of  what 
I  was  doing.  Perhaps  for  many  minutes  there  come 
ideas  from  my  past  experience.  These  ideas  were 
aroused  by  the  perception  of  my  friend.  The  percep- 
tion was  momentary,  but  it  started  a  long  train  of 
memory  ideas. 

I  pass  on  down  the  street  and  go  by  a  music  store. 
Within  the  store,  a  victrola  is  playing  Jesus,  Lover  of 
My  Soul.  The  song  starts  another  train  of  memory 
ideas.  I  think  of  the  past,  of  my  boyhood  days  and 
Sunday  school,  my  early  home  and  many  scenes  of 
my  childhood.     For  several  minutes  I  am  so  engrossed 


126        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

with  the  memory  images  that  I  scarcely  notice  any- 
thing along  the  street.  Again,  the  momentary  per- 
ception, this  time  of  sounds,  served  to  revive  a  great 
number  of  ideas,  or  memories,  of  the  past. 

These  illustrations  are  typical  of  our  life.  Every 
moment  we  have  perceptions.  These  perceptions 
arouse  ideas  of  our  past  life  and  experience.  One  of 
these  ideas  evokes  another,  and  so  an  endless  chain 
of  images  passes  along.  The  older  we  become,  the 
richer  is  our  ideational  life.  While  we  are  children, 
the  perceptions  constitute  the  larger  part  of  our  mental 
life,  but  as  we  become  older,  larger  and  larger  becomes 
the  part  played  by  our  memory  images  or  ideas.  A 
child  is  not  content  to  sit  down  and  reflect,  giving 
himself  up  to  the  flow  of  ideas  that  come  up  from  his 
past  experience,  but  a  mature  person  can  spend  hours 
in  recalling  past  experience.  This  means  that  the 
older  we  grow,  the  more  we  live  in  the  past,  the  less 
we  are  bound  down  by  the  present,  and  when  we  are 
old,  instead  of  perceptions  being  the  main  part  of 
mental  life,  they  but  give  the  initial  push  to  our  thoughts 
which  go  on  in  an  endless  chain  as  long  as  we  live. 

The  Physiological  Basis  of  Memory.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  basis  of  perception  is  the  agitation 
of  the  brain  caused  by  the  stimulation  of  a  sense  organ 
by  an  external  thing  or  force.  If  there  is  no  stimula- 
tion of  a  sense  organ,  there  is  no  sensation,  no  percep- 
tion. Now,  just  as  the  basis  of  sensation  and  percep- 
tion is  brain  activity,  so  it  is  also  the  basis  of  ideas. 
In  sensation,  the  brain  activity  is  set  up  from  with- 
out. In  memory,  when  we  have  ideas,  the  brain  activ- 
ity is  set  up  from  within  and  is  a  fainter  revival  of 
the  activity  originally  caused  by  the  stimulation  of 
the  sense  organ.     Our  ideas  are  just  as  truly  condi- 


Memory  127 

tioned  or  caused  by  brain  activity  as  are  our  sensa- 
tions. 

Memory  presents  many  problems,  and  psychologists 
have  been  trying  for  many  years  to  solve  them.  We 
shall  now  see  what  they  have  discovered  and  what  is 
the  practical  significance  of  the  facts. 

Relation  of  Memory  to  Age  and  Sex.  It  is  a  com- 
mon notion  that  memory  is  best  when  we  are  young, 
but  such  is  not  the  case.  Numerous  experiments 
have  shown  that  all  aspects  of  memory  improve  with 
age.  Some  aspects  of  memory  improve  more  than 
others,  and  they  improve  at  different  times  and  rates ; 
but  all  aspects  do  improve.  From  the  beginning  of 
school  age  to  about  fourteen  years  of  age  the  improve- 
ment of  most  aspects  of  memory  is  rapid. 

If  we  pronounce  a  number  of  digits  to  a  child  of 
six,  it  can  reproduce  but  few  of  them,  a  child  of  eight 
or  ten  can  reproduce  more,  a  child  of  twelve  can  repro- 
duce still  more,  and  an  adult  still  more.  If  we  read 
a  sentence  to  children  of  different  ages,  we  find  that 
the  older  children  can  reproduce  a  longer  sentence. 
If  we  read  a  short  story  to  children  of  different  ages, 
and  then  require  them  to  reproduce  the  story  in  their 
own  words,  the  older  children  reproduce  more  of  the 
story  than  do  the  young  children.1 

Girls  excel  boys  in  practically  all  the  aspects  of 
memory. 

In  rote  memory,  that  is,  memory  for  lists  of  unre- 
lated words,  there  is  not  much  difference ;  but  the  girls 
are  somewhat  better.  However,  in  the  ability  to 
remember  the  ideas  of  a  story,  girls  excel  boys  at 
every  age.  This  superiority  of  girls  over  boys  is  not 
merely  a  matter  of  memory.  A  girl  is  superior  to 
1  See  age  and  sex  graphs,  pp.  184,  188,  189, 


128        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

a  boy  of  the  same  age  in  nearly  every  way.  This  is 
merely  a  fact  of  development.  A  girl  develops  faster 
than  a  boy,  s  she  reaches  maturity  more  quickly,  in 
mind  as  well  as  in  body.  Although  a  girl  is  lighter 
than  a  boy  at  birth,  on  the  average  she  gains  in  weight 
faster  and  is  heavier  at  twelve  than  a  boy  of  the  same 
age.  She  also  gains  faster  in  height,  and  for  a  few 
years  in  early  adolescence  is  taller  than  a  boy  of  the 
same  age.  Of  course,  boys  catch  up  and  finally  be- 
come much  taller  and  heavier  than  girls.  Similarly, 
a  girl's  mind  develops  faster  than  the  mind  of  a  boy, 
as  shown  in  memory  and  other  mental  functions. 

The  Improvement  of  Memory  by  Practice.  All 
aspects  of  memory  can  be  improved  by  practice,  some 
aspects  much,  other  aspects  little.  The  memory 
span  for  digits,  or  letters,  or  words,  or  for  objects  can- 
not be  much  improved,  but  memory  for  ideas  that 
are  related,  as  the  ideas  of  a  story,  can  be  considerably 
improved.  In  extensive  experiments  conducted  in 
the  author's  laboratory,  it  was  found  that  a  person 
who  at  first  required  an  hour  to  memorize  the  ideas 
in  a  certain  amount  of  material,  could,  after  a  few 
months'  practice,  memorize  the  same  amount  in  fifteen 
minutes.  And  in  the  latter  case  the  ideas  would  be 
better  remembered  than  they  were  at  the  beginning 
of  the  experiment.  Not  only  could  a  given  number 
of  ideas  be  learned  in  less  time,  but  they  would  be 
better  retained  when  learned  in  the  shorter  time. 
If  a  person  comes  to  us  for  advice  as  to  how  to  improve 
his  memory,  what  should  we  tell  him?  In  order  to 
answer  the  question,  we  must  consider  the  factors  of 
a  good  memory. 

Factors  of  a  Good  Memory.  (1)  The  first  require- 
ment is  to  get  a  good  impression  in  the  beginning. 


Memory  129 


Memory  is  revived  experience.  The  more  vivid 
and  intense  the  first  experience,  the  more  sure  will 
be  the  later  recall.  So  if  we  wish  to  remember  an 
experience,  we  must  experience  it  in  the  first  place 
under  the  most  favorable  conditions.  The  thing 
must  be  seen  clearly,  it  must  be  understood,  it  must 
be  in  the  focus  of  consciousness. 

The  best  teaching  is  that  which  leads  the  child  to 
get  the  clearest  apprehension  of  what  is  taught.  If 
we  are  teaching  about  some  concrete  thing,  a  plant, 
a  machine,  we  should  be  sure  that  the  child  sees  the 
essential  points,  should  be  sure  that  the  main  principles 
enter  his  consciousness.  We  should  find  out  by  ques- 
tioning whether  he  really  does  clearly  understand  what 
we  are  trying  to  get  him  to  understand.  Often  we 
think  a  pupil  or  student  has  forgotten,  when  the  fact 
is  that  he  never  really  knew  the  thing  which  we  wished 
to  have  him  remember. 

The  first  requisite  to  memory,  then,  is  to  know  in 
the  first  place.  If  we  wish  to  remember  knowledge, 
the  knowledge  must  be  seen  in  the  clearest  light,  really 
be  knowledge,  at  the  outset.  Few  people  ever  really 
learn  how  to  learn.  They  never  see  anything  clearly, 
they  never  stick  to  a  point  till  it  is  apprehended  in  all 
its  relations  and  bearings;  consequently  they  forget, 
largely  because  they  never  really  knew  in  the  fullest 

sense. 

Most  teaching  is  too  abstract.  The  teacher  uses 
words  that  have  no  meaning  to  the  pupil.  Too  much 
teaching  deals  with  things  indirectly.  We  study 
about  things  instead  of  studying  things.  In  geography, 
for  example,  we  study  about  the  earth,  getting  our 
information  from  a  book.  We  read  about  land  forma- 
tions,  river   courses,   erosion,  etc.,  when  instead  we 


130        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

should  study  these  objects  and  processes  themselves. 
The  first  thing  in  memory,  then,  is  clear  apprehen- 
sion, clear  understanding,  vivid  and  intense  impres- 
sion. 

(2)  The  second  thing  necessary  to  memory  is  to 
repeat  the  experience.  First  we  must  get  a  clear 
impression,  then  we  must  repeat  the  experience  if 
we  would  retain  it.  It  is  a  mistake  to  believe  that 
if  we  have  once  understood  a  thing,  we  will  always 
thereafter  remember  it.  We  must  think  our  experi- 
ences over  again  if  we  wish  to  fix  them  for  permanent 
retention. 

We  must  organize  our  experience.  To  organize 
experience  means  to  think  it  over  in  its  helpful  rela- 
tions. In  memory,  one  idea  arouses  another.  When 
we  have  one  idea,  what  other  idea  will  this  arouse? 
It  depends  on  what  connections  this  idea  has  had  in 
our  minds  in  the  past.  It  depends  on  the  associations 
that  it  has,  and  associations  depend  on  our  thinking 
the  ideas  over  together. 

Teachers  and  parents  should  help  children  to  think 
over  their  experiences  in  helpful,  practical  relations. 
Then  in  the  future,  when  an  idea  comes  to  mind,  it 
brings  along  with  it  other  ideas  that  have  these  helpful, 
practical  relations.  We  must  not,  then,  merely  repeat 
our  experiences,  but  must  repeat  them  in  helpful  con- 
nections or  associations.  In  organizing  our  experi- 
ence, we  must  systematize  and  classify  our  knowledge. 

One  of  the  chief  differences  in  men  is  in  the  way  they 
organize  their  knowledge.  Most  of  us  have  experi- 
ences abundant  enough,  but  we  differ  in  the  way  we 
work  over  and  organize  these  experiences.  Organiza- 
tion not  only  enables  us  to  remember  our  experience, 
but  brings  our  experience  back  in  the  right  connections. 


Memory  131 

The  advice  that  should  be  given  to  a  student  is 
the  following:  Make  sure  that  you  understand. 
If  the  matter  is  a  lesson  in  a  book,  go  through  it  try- 
ing to  get  the  main  facts;  then  go  through  it  again, 
trying  to  see  the  relation  of  all  the  facts.  Then  try 
to  see  the  facts  in  relation  to  your  wider  experience. 
If  it  is  a  history  lesson,  think  of  the  facts  of  the 
lesson  in  their  relation  to  previous  chapters.  Think 
of  the  details  in  their  bearing  on  wider  and  larger 
movements. 

A  teacher  should  always  hold  in  mind  the  facts 
in  regard  to  memory,  and  should  make  her  teaching 
conform  to  them.  She  should  carefully  plan  the  pres- 
entation of  a  new  topic  so  as  to  insure  a  clear  initial 
impression.  A  new  topic  should  be  presented  orally 
by  the  teacher,  with  abundant  illustration  and  ex- 
planation. It  cannot  be  made  too  concrete,  it  can- 
not be  made  too  plain  and  simple. 

Then  after  the  teacher  has  introduced  and  made 
plain  the  new  topic,  the  pupil  reads  and  studies  further. 
At  the  next  recitation  of  the  class,  the  first  thing  in 
order  should  be  a  discussion,  on  the  part  of  the  pupils. 
This  will  help  the  pupils  to  get  the  facts  cleared  up  and 
will  help  the  teacher  to  find  out  whether  the  pupils 
have  the  facts  right. 

The  first  part  of  the  recitation  should  also  be  a 
time  for  questions.  Everything  should  now  be  made 
clear,  if  there  are  any  errors  or  misunderstandings  on 
the  pupil's  part.  Of  course  any  procedure  in  a  recita- 
tion should  depend  upon  the  nature  of  the  material 
and  to  some  extent  on  the  stage  of  advancement  of 
the  pupil ;  but  in  general  such  a  procedure  as  that  just 
outlined  will  be  most  satisfactory  and  economical : 
first  clear  initial  presentation  by  the  teacher;    then 


132        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

reading  and  study  on  the  part  of  the  pupil,  and  third, 
discussions  on  the  following  day. 

Teachers  should  also  endeavor  to  show  students 
how  to  study  to  the  best  advantage.  Pupils  do  not 
know  how  to  study.  They  do  not  know  what  to  look 
for,  and  do  not  know  how  to  find  it  after  they  know 
what  they  are  looking  for.  They  should  be  shown. 
Of  course,  some  of  them  learn  without  help  how  to 
study.  But  some  never  learn,  and  it  would  be  a  great 
saving  of  time  to  help  all  of  them  master  the  arts  of 
study  and  memorizing. 

A  very  important  factor  in  connection  with  memory 
is  the  matter  of  meaning.  If  a  person  will  try  to  mem- 
orize a  list  of  nonsense  words,  he  will  find  that  it  is 
much  more  difficult  than  to  memorize  words  that 
have  meaning.  This  is  a  significant  fact.  It  means 
that  as  material  approaches  nonsense,  it  is  difficult 
to  memorize.  Therefore  we  should  always  try  to 
grasp  the  meaning  of  a  thing,  its  significance.  In 
science,  let  us  always  ask,  what  is  the  meaning  of  this 
fact?  What  bearing  does  it  have  on  other  facts? 
How  does  it  affect  the  meaning  of  other  facts  ? 

Kinds  of  Memories.  We  should  not  speak  of  mem- 
ory as  if  it  were  some  sort  of  power  like  muscular 
strength.  We  should  always  speak  of  memories. 
Memories  may  be  classified  from  several  different 
points  of  view :  A  classification  may  be  based  on  the 
kind  of  material,  as  memory  for  concrete  things,  the 
actual  objects  of  experience,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
memory  for  abstract  material,  such  as  names  of  things, 
their  attributes  and  relations,  on  the  other.  Again,  we 
can  base  a  classification  on  the  type  of  ideation  to 
which  the  material  appeals,  as  auditory  memory,  visual 
memory,  motor  memory.    We  can  also  base  a  classi- 


Memory  133 

fication  on  the  principle  of  meaning.  This  principle  of 
classification  would  give  us  at  least  three  classes :  mem- 
ory for  ideas  as  expressed  in  sentences,  logical  mem- 
ory ;  memory  for  series  of  meaningful  words  not  logi- 
cally related  in  sentences,  rote  memory ;  memory  for 
series  of  meaningless  words,  a  form  of  rote  memory. 
This  classification  is  not  meant  to  be  complete,  but 
only  suggestive.  With  every  change  in  the  kind  of 
material,  the  method  of  presenting  the  material  to  the 
subject,  or  the  manner  in  which  the  subject  deals  with 
the  material,  there  may  be  a  change  in  the  effectiveness 
of  memory. 

While  these  different  kinds  or  aspects  of  memory 
may  have  some  relation  to  one  another,  they  are  to 
some  extent  independent.  One  may  have  a  good 
rote  memory  and  a  poor  logical  memory,  or  a  poor 
rote  memory  and  a  good  logical  memory.  That  is 
to  say,  one  may  be  very  poor  at  remembering  the 
exact  words  of  a  book,  but  be  good  at  remembering 
the  meaning,  the  ideas,  of  the  book.  One  may  be 
good  at  organizing  meaningful  material  but  poor  at 
remembering  mere  words.  On  the  other  hand,  these 
conditions  may  be  reversed ;  one  may  remember  the 
words  but  never  get  the  meaning.  It  is  of  course 
possible  that  much  of  this  difference  is  due  to  habit 
and  experience,  but  some  of  the  difference  is  beyond 
doubt  due  to  original  differences  in  the  nervous  system 
and  brain.  These  differences  should  be  determined 
in  the  case  of  all  children.  It  is  quite  a  common 
thing  to  find  a  feeble-minded  person  with  a  good 
rote  memory,  but  such  a  person  never  has  a  good  logical 
memory.  One  can  have  a  good  rote  memory  without 
understanding,  one  cannot  have  a  good  logical  memory 
without  understanding. 


134         The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Let  us  now  ask  the  question,  why  can  one  remember 
better  words  that  are  connected  by  logical  relations 
than  words  that  have  no  such  connection?  If  we 
read  to  a  person  a  list  of  twenty  nonsense  words,  the 
person  can  remember  only  two  or  three ;  but  if  a  list 
of  twenty  words  connected  in  a  sentence  were  read  to 
a  person,  in  most  cases,  all  of  them  would  be  reproduced. 
The  reason  is  that  the  words  in  the  latter  case  are  not 
new.  We  already  know  the  words.  They  are  already 
a  part  of  our  experience.  We  have  had  days,  perhaps 
years,  of  experience  with  them.  All  that  is  now  new 
about  them  is  perhaps  a  slightly  new  relation. 

Moreover,  the  twenty  words  may  contain  but  one, 
or  at  most  only  a  few,  ideas,  and  in  this  case  it  is  the 
ideas  that  we  remember.  The  ideas  hold  the  words 
together. ""'  If  the  twenty  words  contain  a  great  num- 
ber of  ideas,  then  we  cannot  remember  all  of  them 
from  one  reading.  If  I  say,  "  I  have  a  little  boy  who 
loves  his  father  and  mother  very  much,  and  this  boy 
wishes  to  go  to  the  river  to  catch  some  fish,"  one  can 
easily  remember  all  these  words  after  one  reading.  But 
if  I  say,  "  The  stomach  in  all  the  Salmonidae  is  syphonal 
and  at  the  pylorus  are  fifteen  to  two  hundred  compara- 
tively large  pyloric  cceca  " ;  although  this  sentence 
is  shorter,  one  finds  it  more  difficult  to  remember,  and 
the  main  reason  is  that  the  words  are  not  so  familiar. 

Memory  and  Thinking.  What  is  the  relation  of 
memory  to  thinking  and  the  other  mental  functions? 
One  often  hears  a  teacher  say  that  she  does  not  wish 
her  pupils  to  depend  on  memory,  but  wishes  them 
to  reason  things  out.  Such  a  statement  shows  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  facts;  for  reasoning  itself  is 
only  the  recall  of  ideas  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
association.     Without   memory,    there   would   be   no 


Memory  135 

reasoning,  for  the  very  material  of  thought  is  found 
to  be  the  revived  experiences  which  we  call  ideas, 
memories. 

One  of  the  first  requisites  of  good  thinking  is  a  reli- 
able memory.  One  must  have  facts  to  reason,  and 
these  facts  must  come  to  one  in  memory  to  be  avail- 
able for  thought.  If  one  wishes  to  become  a  great 
thinker  in  a  certain  field,  he  must  gain  experience  in 
that  field  and  organize  that  experience  in  such  a  way 
as  to  remember  it  and  to  recall  it  when  it  is  wanted. 

What  one  does  deplore  is  memory  for  the  mere  words 
with  no  understanding  of  the  meaning.  In  geometry, 
for  example,  a  student  sometimes  commits  to  memory 
the  words  of  a  demonstration,  with  no  understanding 
of  the  meaning.  Of  course,  that  is  worse  than  useless. 
One  should  remember  the  meaning  of  the  demonstra- 
tion. If  one  has  memorized  the  words  only,  he  can- 
not solve  an  original  problem  in  geometry.  But  if 
he  has  understood  the  meaning  of  the  demonstration, 
then  he  recalls  it,  and  is  enabled  to  solve  the  problem. 
If  one  does  not  remember  the  various  facts  about  the 
relationships  in  a  triangle,  he  cannot  solve  a  problem 
of  the  triangle  until  he  has  worked  out  and  discovered 
the  necessary  facts.  Then  memory  would  make  them 
available  for  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

Memory  and  School  Standing.  That  memory  plays 
a  large  part  in  our  life  is  evident ;  and,  of  course,  it  is 
an  important  factor  in  all  school  work.  It  matters 
not  what  we  learn,  if  we  do  not  remember  it.  The 
author  has  made  extensive  experiments  to  determine 
the  relation  that  memory  has  to  a  child's  progress  in 
school. 

The  method  used  was  to  give  logical  memory  tests 
to  all  the  children  in  a  school  and  then  rank  the  chil- 


136        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

dren  in  accordance  with  their  abilities  to  reproduce 
the  story  used  in  the  test.  Then  they  were  ranked 
according  to  their  standing  in  their  studies.  A  very 
high  correlation  was  found.  On  the  whole,  the  pupils 
standing  highest  in  the  memory  tests  were  found  to 
stand  highest  in  their  studies.  It  is  true,  of  course, 
that  they  did  not  stand  highest  merely  because  they 
had  good  memories,  but  because  they  were  not  only 
better  in  memory,  but  were  better  in  most  other  re- 
spects too.  Pupils  that  are  good  in  logical  memory 
are  usually  good  in  other  mental  functions. 

A  test  of  logical  memory  is  one  of  the  best  to  give 
us  an  idea  of  the  school  standing  of  pupils.  Not 
only  is  the  retention  of  ideas  of  very  great  impor- 
tance itself,  but  the  acquiring  of  ideas,  and  the  or- 
ganizing of  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  remember  them 
involves  nearly  all  the  mental  functions.  The  one 
who  remembers  well  ideas  logically  related,  is  the  one 
who  pays  the  closest  attention,  the  one  who  sees  the 
significance,  the  one  who  organizes,  the  one  who  re- 
peats, the  one  who  turns  things  over  in  his  mind.  A 
logical  memory  test  is  therefore,  to  some  extent,  a  test 
of  attention,  association,  power  of  organization  as  well 
as  of  memory ;  in  a  word,  it  is  a  test  of  mental  power. 

Other  things  being  equal,  a  person  whose  power 
of  retention  is  good  has  a  great  advantage  over  his 
fellows  who  have  poor  ability  to  remember.  Suppose 
we  consider  the  learning  of  language.  The  pupil 
who  can  look  up  the  meaning  of  a  word  just  once  and 
remember  it  has  an  advantage  over  the  person  who  has 
to  look  up  the  meaning  of  the  word  several  times  before 
it  is  retained.  So  in  any  branch  of  study,  the  person 
who  can  acquire  the  facts  in  less  time  than  another 
person,  has  the  extra  time  for  learning  something  else 


Memory  137 

or  for  going  over  the  same  material  and  organizing 
it  better.  The  scientist  who  remembers  all  the  signifi- 
cant facts  that  he  reads,  and  sees  their  bearing  on 
his  problems,  has  a  great  advantage  over  the  person 
who  does  not  remember  so  well. 

Of  course,  there  are  certain  dangers  in  having  a 
good  memory,  just  as  there  is  danger  in  being  brilliant 
generally.  The  quick  learner  is  in  danger  of  forming 
slovenly  habits.  A  person  who  learns  quickly  is  likely 
to  form  the  habit  of  waiting  till  the  last  minute  to 
study  his  lesson  and  then  getting  a  superficial  idea  of 
it.  The  slow  learner  must  form  good  habits  of  study 
to  get  on  at  all. 

Teachers  and  parents  should  prevent  the  bright 
children  from  forming  bad  habits  of  study.  The  per- 
son who  learns  quickly  and  retains  well  should  be  taught 
to  be  thorough  and  to  use  the  advantage  that  comes 
from  repetition.  The  quick  learner  should  not  be 
satisfied  with  one  attack  on  his  lesson,  but  should 
study  the  lesson  more  than  once,  for  even  the  brilliant 
learner  cannot  afford  to  neglect  the  advantages  that 
come  from  repetition.  A  person  with  poor  memory 
and  only  mediocre  ability  generally  can  make  up  very 
much  by  hard  work  and  by  work  that  takes  advantage 
of  all  the  laws  of  economical  learning.  But  he  can 
never  compete  successfully  with  the  person  who  works 
as  hard  as  he  does  and  who  has  good  powers  of  learning 
and  retention. 

The  author  has  found  that  in  a  large  class  of  a  hundred 
or  more,  there  is  usually  a  person  who  has  good  mem- 
ory along  with  good  mental  ability  generally,  and  is 
also  a  hard  worker.  Such  a  person  always  does  the 
best  work  in  the  class.  A  person  with  poor  memory 
and  poor  mental  powers  generally  cannot  hope  to  com- 


138        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


pete  with  a  person  of  good  memory,  good  mental  pow- 
ers generally,  if  that  person  is  also  a  good  worker. 

Learning  and  Remembering.  A  popular  fallacy 
is  expressed  in  the  saying  "  Easy  come,  easy  go."  The 
person  who  is  the  best  learner  is  also  the  best  in  re- 
taining what  is  learned,  provided  all  other  conditions 
are  the  same.  This  matter  was  determined  in  the 
following  way:  A  logical  memory  test  was  given  to 
all  the  children  in  a  city  school  system.  A  story  was 
read  to  the  pupils  and  then  reproduced  by  them  in 
writing.  The  papers  were  corrected  and  graded  and 
nothing  more  was  said  about  the  test  for  one  month. 
Then  at  the  same  time  in  every  room,  the  teachers 
said,  "  You  remember  the  story  I  read  to  you  some 
time  ago  and  which  I  asked  you  to  reproduce.  Well,  I 
wish  to  see  how  much  of  the  story  you  still  remember." 
The  pupils  were  then  required  to  write  down  all  the 
story  that  they  could  recall. 

It  was  found  that,  in  general,  the  children  who  write 
the  most  when  the  story  is  first  read  to  them,  write 
the  most  after  the  lapse  of  a  month,  and  the  poorest 
ones  at  first  are  the  poorest  ones  at  the  end  of  the 
month.  Of  course,  the  correspondence  is  not  perfect, 
but  in  some  cases,  in  some  grades,  it  is  almost  so. 

The  significance  of  this  experiment  is  very  great. 
It  means  that  the  pupil  who  gets  the  most  facts  from 
a  lesson  will  have  the  most  facts  at  any  later  time.  This 
is  true,  of  course,  only  if  other  things  are  equal.  If  one 
pupil  studies  about  the  matter  more,  reflects  upon  it, 
repeats  it  in  his  mind,  of  course  this  person  will  remem- 
ber more,  other  things  being  equal.  But  if  neither 
reviews  the  matter,  or  if  both  do  it  to  an  equal  extent, 
then  the  one  who  learns  the  most  in  the  first  place, 
remembers  the  most  at  a  later  time. 


Memory  139 

I  have  also  tested  the  matter  out  in  other  ways.  I 
have  experimented  with  a  group  of  men  and  women, 
by  reading  a  passage  of  about  a  page  in  length,  repeat- 
ing the  reading  till  the  subject  could  reproduce  all 
the  facts.  It  was  found  that  the  person  who  acquired 
all  the  facts  from  the  fewest  readings  remembered 
more  of  the  facts  later.  It  must  be  said  that  there  is 
less  difference  between  the  subjects  later  than  at  first. 

In  the  laboratory  of  Columbia  University  a  similar 
experiment  was  performed,  but  in  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent way.  Students  were  required  to  commit  to  mem- 
ory German  vocabularies  and  were  later  tested  for 
their  retention  of  the  words  learned.  It  was  found 
that  those  who  learned  the  most  words  in  a  given  time, 
also  retained  the  largest  percentage  of  what  had  been 
learned.  It  should  not  be  surprising  that  this  is  the 
case.  The  quick  learner  is  the  one  who  makes  the 
best  use  of  all  the  factors  of  retention,  the  factors 
mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraph  —  good  atten- 
tion, association,  organization,  etc. 

Another  experiment  performed  in  the  author's 
laboratory  bears  out  the  above  conclusions.  A  group 
of  students  were  required  to  commit  to  memory  at 
one  sitting  a  long  list  of  nonsense  syllables.  The  num- 
ber of  repetitions  necessary  to  enable  each  student 
to  reproduce  them  was  noted.  One  day  later,  the 
students  attempted  to  reproduce  the  syllables.  Of 
course  they  could  not,  and  they  were  then  required 
to  say  them  over  again  till  they  could  just  repeat  them 
from  memory.  The  number  of  repetitions  was  noted. 
The  number  of  repetitions  was  much  less  than  on  the 
first  day.  On  the  third  day,  the  process  was  repeated. 
The  number  of  repetitions  was  fewer  still.  This 
relearning  was  kept  up  each  day  till  each  person  could 


140        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

repeat  the  syllables  from  memory  without  any  study. 
It  was  found  that  the  person  who  learned  the  syllables 
in  the  fewest  repetitions  the  first  time,  relearned  them 
in  the  fewest  repetitions  on  succeeding  days.  All  the 
experiments  bearing  on  the  subject  point  to  the  same 
conclusion;  namely,  that  the  quick  learner,  if  other 
things  are  equal,  retains  at  least  as  well  as  the  slow 
learner,  and  usually  retains  better. 

Transfer  of  Memory  Training.  We  have  said  above 
that  there  are  many  kinds  or  aspects  of  memory.  It 
has  also  been  said  that  we  can  improve  memory  by 
practice.  Now,  the  question  arises,  if  we  improve 
one  aspect  of  memory,  does  this  improve  all  aspects? 
This  is  an  important  question ;  moreover,  it  is  one  to 
be  settled  by  experiment  and  not  by  argument. 

The  most  extensive  and  thorough  experiment  was 
performed  by  an  English  psychologist,  Sleight.  The 
experiment  was  essentially  as  follows:  He  took  a 
large  number  of  pupils  and  tested  the  efficiency  of 
the  various  aspects  of  their  memory.  He  then  took 
half  of  them  and  trained  one  aspect  of  their  memory 
until  there  was  considerable  improvement.  The  other 
section  had  no  memory  training  meanwhile.  After 
the  training,  both  groups  again  had  all  aspects  of  their 
memory  tested.  Both  groups  showed  improvement 
in  all  aspects  because  the  first  tests  gave  them  some 
practice,  but  the  group  that  had  been  receiving  the 
training  was  no  better  in  those  aspects  not  trained 
than  was  the  group  receiving  no  training  at  all.  As- 
pects of  memory  much  like  the  one  trained  showed 
some  improvement,  but  other  aspects  did  not. 

The  conclusion  is  that  memory  training  is  specific, 
that  it  affects  only  the  kind  of  memory  trained,  and 
related  memories.     This  is  in  harmony  with  what  we 


Memory  141 

learned  about  habit.  When  we  receive  training,  it 
affects  only  the  parts  of  us  trained  and  other  closely 
related  parts. 

Learning  by  Wholes.  We  do  not  often  have  to 
commit  to  memory  verbatim,  but  when  we  do,  it  is 
important  that  we  should  know  the  most  economical 
way.  Experiments  have  clearly  demonstrated  that  the 
most  economical  way  is  to  read  the  entire  selection 
through  from  beginning  to  end  and  continue  to  read  it 
through  in  this  way  till  the  matter  is  learned  by  heart. 

In  long  selections,  the  saving  by  this  method  is 
considerable.  A  pupil  is  not  likely  to  believe  this 
because  if  he  spends  a  few  minutes  learning  in  this 
manner,  he  finds  that  he  cannot  repeat  a  single  line, 
while  if  he  had  concentrated  on  one  line,  he  could  have 
repeated  at  least  that  much.  This  is  true;  but  al- 
though he  cannot  repeat  a  single  line  by  the  whole 
procedure,  he  has  learned  nevertheless.  It  would 
be  a  good  thing  to  demonstrate  this  fact  to  a  class; 
then  the  pupils  would  be  satisfied  to  use  the  most 
economical  procedure.  The  plan  holds  good  whether 
the  matter  be  prose  or  poetry. 

But  experiments  have  been  carried  on  only  with 
verbatim  learning.  The  best  procedure  for  learning 
the  facts  so  that  one  can  give  them  in  one's  own  words 
has  not  yet  been  experimentally  determined. 

Cramming.  An  important  practical  question  is 
whether  it  pays  to  go  over  a  great  amount  of  material 
in  a  very  short  time,  as  students  often  do  before  ex- 
aminations. From  all  that  has  been  said  above,  one 
could  infer  the  solution  to  this  problem.  Learning 
and  memorizing  are  to  some  extent  a  growth,  and  conse- 
quently involve  time. 

There  is  an  important  law  of  learning  and  memory 


142        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

known  as  Jost's  law,  which  may  be  stated  as  follows : 
If  we  repeat  or  renew  associations,  the  repetitions 
have  most  value  for  the  old  associations.  Therefore 
when  we  learn,  we  should  learn  and  then  later  relearn. 
This  will  make  for  permanent  retention.  Of  course, 
if  we  wish  to  get  together  a  great  mass  of  facts  for  a 
temporary  purpose  and  do  not  care  to  retain  them  per- 
manently, cramming  is  the  proper  method.  If  we 
are  required  to  pass  an  examination  in  which  a  knowl- 
edge of  many  details  is  expected  and  these  details 
have  no  important  permanent  value,  cramming  is 
justified.  When  a  lawyer  is  preparing  a  case  to  present 
to  a  court,  the  actual,  detail  evidence  is  of  no  perma- 
nent value,  and  cramming  is  justified. 

But  if  we  wish  to  acquire  and  organize  facts  for 
their  permanent  value,  cramming  is  not  the  proper 
procedure.  The  proper  procedure  is  for  a  student  to 
go  over  his  work  faithfully  as  the  term  of  school  pro- 
ceeds, then  occasionally  review.  At  the  end  of  the 
term,  a  rapid  review  of  the  whole  term's  work  is  valu- 
able. After  one  has  studied  over  matter  and  once 
carefully  worked  it  out,  a  quick  view  again  of  the  whole 
subject  is  most  valuable,  and  assists  greatly  in  making 
the  acquisition  permanent.  But  if  the  matter  has 
not  been  worked  out  before,  the  hasty  view  of  the 
material  of  the  course,  while  it  may  enable  one  to  pass 
the  examination,  has  no  permanent  value. 

Function  of  the  Teacher  in  Memory  Work.  The 
function  of  a  teacher  is  plainly  to  get  the  pupils  to 
learn  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  memory  above 
set  forth ;  but  there  are  certain  things  that  a  teacher 
can  do  that  may  not  have  become  evident  to  the  reader. 
It  has  been  learned  in  experiments  in  logical  memory 
that  when  a  story  is  read  to  a  subject  and  the  subject 


Memory  143 

attempts  to  reproduce  it,  certain  mistakes  are  made. 
When  the  story  is  read  again,  it  is  common  for  the 
same  mistakes  to  be  made  in  the  recall.  Certain 
ideas  were  apprehended  in  a  certain  way;  and,  when 
the  piece  is  read  again,  the  subject  pays  no  more  at- 
tention to  the  ideas  already  acquired  and  reported, 
and  they  are  therefore  reported  wrongly  as  they  were  in 
the  first  place.  Often  the  subject  does  not  notice 
the  errors  till  his  attention  is  called  to  them. 

This  suggests  an  important  function  of  the  teacher 
in  connection  with  the  memory  work  of  the  pupils. 
This  function  is  to  correct  mistakes  in  the  early  stages 
of  learning.  A  teacher  should  always  be  on  the  watch 
to  find  the  errors  of  the  pupils  and  to  correct  them 
before  they  are  fixed  by  repetition. 

A  teacher  should,  also,  consider  it  her  duty  to  test 
the  memory  capacities  of  the  pupils  and  to  give  each 
the  advice  that  the  case  demands. 

Some  Educational  Inferences.  —  There  are  certain 
consequences  to  education  that  follow  from  the  facts 
of  memory  above  set  forth  that  are  of  considerable 
significance.  Many  things  have  been  taught  to  chil- 
dren on  the  assumption  that  they  could  learn  them 
better  in  childhood  than  later,  because  it  was  thought 
that  memory  and  the  learning  capacity  were  better 
in  childhood.  But  both  of  these  assumptions  are 
false.  As  children  grow  older  their  learning  capacity 
increases  and  their  memories  become  better. 

It  has  particularly  been  held  that  rote  memory  is 
better  in  childhood  and  that  therefore  children  should 
begin  their  foreign  language  study  early.  It  is  true 
that  as  far  as  speaking  a  foreign  language  is  concerned, 
the  earlier  a  child  begins  it  the  better.  But  this  is  not 
true  of  learning  to  read  the  language.     The  sounds  of 


144        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

the  foreign  language  that  we  have  not  learned  in  child- 
hood in  speaking  the  mother  tongue  are  usually  diffi- 
cult for  us  to  make.  The  organs  of  speech  become  set 
in  the  way  of  their  early  exercise.  In  reading  the  for- 
eign language,  correct  pronunciation  is  not  important. 
We  are  concerned  with  getting  the  thought,  and  this  is 
possible  without  pronouncing  at  all.  Reference  to 
graphs  on  pages  190  and  191  will  show  that  rote  memory 
steadily  improves  throughout  childhood  and  youth.  The 
author  has  performed  numerous  experiments  to  test 
this  very  point.  He  has  had  adults  work  side  by  side 
with  children  at  building  up  new  associations  of  the 
rote  memory  type  and  found  that  always  the  adult 
could  learn  faster  than  the  child  and  retain  better 
what  was  learned. 

The  experience  of  language  teachers  in  college  and 
university  does  not  give  much  comfort  to  those  who 
claim  that  language  study  should  be  begun  early. 
These  teachers  claim  that  the  students  who  have  had 
previous  language  study  do  no  better  than  those  who 
have  had  none.  It  seems,  however,  that  there  cer- 
tainly ought  to  be  some  advantage  in  beginning  lan- 
guage study  early  and  spreading  the  study  out  over 
the  high  school  period.  But  what  is  gained  does  not 
offset  the  tremendous  loss  that  follows  from  requiring 
all  high  school  students  to  study  a  foreign  language 
merely  to  give  an  opportunity  for  early  study  to  those 
who  are  to  go  on  in  the  university  with  language 
courses.  A  mature  university  student  that  has  a  real 
interest  in  language  and  literature  can  begin  his  lan- 
guage study  in  the  university  and  make  rapid  progress. 
Some  of  the  best  classical  scholars  whom  the  author 
knows  began  their  language  study  in  the  university. 
While  it  would  have  been  of  some  advantage  to  them 


Memory  145 

to  have  begun  their  language  study  earlier,  there  are 
so  few  who  should  go  into  this  kind  of  work  that  society 
cannot  afford  to  make  provision  for  their  beginning 
the  study  in  the  high  school. 

The  selection  and  arrangement  of  the  studies  in  the 
curriculum  must  be  based  on  other  grounds  than  the 
laws  of  memory.  What  children  make  most  progress 
in  and  need  most  to  know  are  the  concrete  things  of 
their  physical  and  social  environment.  Children  must 
first  learn  the  world  -  -  the  woods  and  streams  and  birds 
and  flowers  and  plants  and  animals,  the  earth,  its 
rocks  and  soils  and  the  wonderful  forces  at  work  in  it. 
They  must  learn  man,  —  what  he  is  and  what  he  does 
and  how  he  does  it;  how  he  lives  and  does  his  work 
and  how  he  governs  himself.  They  should  also  learn 
to  read  and  to  write  their  mother  tongue,  and  should 
learn  something  of  that  great  store  of  literature  written 
in  the  mother  tongue. 

The  few  that  are  to  be  scholars  in  language  and  liter- 
ature must  wait  till  beginning  professional  study  before 
taking  up  their  foreign  language;  just  as  a  person 
who  is  to  be  a  lawyer  or  physician  must  also  wait 
till  time  to  enter  a  university  before  beginning  special 
professional  preparation.  The  child's  memory  for 
abstract  conceptions  is  particularly  weak  in  early 
years;  hence  studies  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  ac- 
quaint the  child  with  the  concrete  aspects  of  the  world 
first,  and  later  to  acquaint  him  with  the  abstract  rela- 
tions of  things.  Mathematics  should  come  late  in  the 
child's  life,  for  the  same  reason.  Mathematics  deals 
with  quantitative  relations  which  the  child  can  neither 
learn  nor  remember  profitably  and  economically  till 
he  is  more  mature.  The  child  should  first  learn  the 
world  in  its  descriptive  aspects. 


146        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Memory  and  Habit.  The  discussion  up  to  this 
point  should  have  made  it  clear  to  the  reader  that 
memory  is  much  the  same  thing  as  habit.  Memory 
considered  as  retention  depends  upon  the  permanence 
of  the  impression  on  the  brain ;  but  in  its  associative 
aspects  depends  on  connections  between  brain  centers, 
as  is  the  case  with  habit.  The  association  of  ideas, 
which  is  the  basis  of  their  recall,  is  purely  a  matter  of 
habit  formation. 

When  I  think  of  George  Washington,  I  also  think 
of  the  Revolution,  of  the  government,  of  the  presi- 
dency, of  John  Adams,  Thomas  Jefferson,  etc.,  because 
of  the  connections  which  these  ideas  have  had  in  my 
mind  many  times  before.  There  is  a  basis  in  the  brain 
structure  for  these  connections.  There  is  nothing 
in  any  idea  that  connects  it  with  another  idea.  Ideas 
become  connected  because  of  the  way  in  which  we  ex- 
perience them,  and  the  reason  one  idea  calls  up  another 
idea  is  because  the  brain  process  that  is  the  cause  of 
one  idea  brings  about  another  brain  process  that  is 
the  cause  of  a  second  idea.  The  whole  thing  is  merely 
a  matter  of  the  way  the  brain  activities  become  or- 
ganized. Therefore  the  various  laws  of  habit-forma- 
tion have  application  to  memory  in  so  far  as  memory 
is  a  matter  of  the  association  of  ideas,  based  on  brain 
processes. 

One  often  has  the  experience  of  trying  to  recall  a 
name  or  a  fact  and  finds  that  he  cannot.  Presently 
the  name  or  fact  may  come,  or  it  may  not  come  till 
the  next  day  or  the  next  week.  What  is  the  cause 
of  this  peculiar  phenomenon?  The  explanation  is 
to  be  found  in  the  nervous  system.  When  one  tries 
to  recall  the  name  and  it  will  not  come  to  mind,  there 
is  some  temporary  block  or  hindrance  in  the  nerve- 


Memory 


147 


path  that  leads  from  one  center  to  the  other  and  one 
cannot  think  of  the  name  till  the  obstruction  is  removed. 
We  go  on  thinking  about  other  things,  and  in  the  mean- 
time the  activities  going  on  in  the  brain  remove  the 
obstruction ;  so  when  the  matter  comes  up  again, 
the  nerve  current  shoots  through,  and  behold,  the 
name  comes  to  mind. 

Now  the  only  preventive  of  such  an  occurrence  is 
to  be  found  in  the  law  of  habit,  for  the  block  ordi- 


Figure  IV  —  Associative  Connections 

The  diagram  represents  schematically  the  neural  basis  of  the 

association  of  ideas. 

narily  occurs  in  case  of  paths  or  bonds  not  well  estab- 
lished. We  must  think  together  the  things  we  wish 
to  have  associated.  Repetition  is  the  key  to  the  situa- 
tion, repetition  which  is  the  significant  thing  in  habit- 
formation,  repetition  which  is  the  only  way  of  coupling 
two  things  which  we  wish  to  have  associated  together. 


148        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


Of  course,  there  is  no  absolute  coupling  of  two  ideas. 
One  sometimes  forgets  his  own  name.  When  we  are 
tired  or  ill,  things  which  were  the  most  closely  associ- 
ated may  not  hang  together.  But  those  ideas  hold 
together  in  the  firmest  way  that  have  been  experienced 
together  most  often  in  a  state  of  attention.  The  dia- 
gram on  page  147  illustrates  schematically  the  neural 
connections  and  cross-connections  which  are  the  bases 
of  the  association  of  ideas,  the  circles  A,  B,  C,  D,  E, 
and  F  represent  brain  processes  which  give  rise  to 
ideas,  and  the  lines  represent  connecting  paths.  Note 
that  there  are  both  direct  and  indirect  connections. 

Summary.  Sensation  and  perception  give  us  our.  first  experi- 
ence with  things;  memory  is  revived  experience.  It  enables 
us  to  live  our  experience  over  again  and  is  therefore  one  of  the 
most  important  human  traits.  The  physiological  basis  of  memory 
is  in  the  brain  and  nervous  system.  Memory  improves  with 
practice  and  up  to  a  certain  point  with  the  age  of  the  person.  It 
is  better  in  girls  than  in  boys.  Good  memory  depends  on  vivid 
experience  in  the  first  place  and  on  organization  and  repetition 
afterward.  The  person  who  learns  quickly  usually  retains  well 
also.  Memory  training  is  specific.  The  extension  of  the  learn- 
ing process  over  a  long  time  is  favorable  to  memory.  Memory 
ideas  are  the  basis  of  thinking  and  reasoning. 

CLASS  EXERCISES 

1.  The  teacher  can  test  the  auditory  memory  of  the  members 
of  the  class  for  rote  material  by  using  letters.  It  is  better  to  omit 
the  vowels,  using  only  the  consonants.  Prepare  five  groups  of 
letters  with  eight  letters  in  a  group.  Read  each  group  of  letters 
to  the  class,  slowly  and  distinctly.  After  reading  a  group,  allow 
time  for  the  students  to  write  down  what  they  recall,  then  read 
the  next  group  and  so  proceed  till  the  five  groups  have  been 
read.  Grade  the  work  by  finding  the  number  of  letters  reproduced, 
taking  no  account  of  the  position  of  the  letters. 

2.  In  a  similar  way,  test  visual  memory,  using  different  combina- 
tions of  letters.     Write  the  letters  plainly  on  five  large  squares  of 


Memory  149 

cardboard.     Hold  each  list  before  the  class  for  as  long  a  time  as  it 
took  to  read  a  group  in  experiment  No.  1. 

3.  Test  memory  for  words  in  a  similar  way.  Use  simple  words 
of  one  syllable,  making  five  lists  with  eight  words  in  a  list. 

4.  Test  memory  for  objects  by  fastening  common  objects  on 
a  large  cardboard  and  holding  the  card  before  the  class.  Put 
eight  objects  on  each  card  and  prepare  five  cards.  Expose  them 
for  the  same  length  of  time  as  in  experiment  No.  2. 

5.  Test  memory  for  names  of  objects  by  preparing  five  lists  of 
names,  eight  names  in  a  list,  and  reading  the  names  as  in  experi- 
ment No.  1. 

6.  You  now  have  data  for  the  following  study :  Find  the  average 
grade  of  each  student  in  the  different  experiments.  Find  the 
combined  grade  of  each  student  in  all  the  above  experiments. 
Do  the  members  of  the  class  hold  the  same  rank  in  all  the  tests? 
How  do  the  boys  compare  with  the  girls?  How  does  memory 
for  objects  compare  with  memory  for  names  of  objects?  How 
does  auditory  memory  compare  with  visual?  What  other  points 
do  you  learn  from  the  experiments? 

7.  The  teacher  can  make  a  study  of  the  logical  memory  of  the 
members  of  the  class  by  using  material  as  described  on  page  184. 
Make  five  separate  tests,  using  stories  that  are  well  within  the 
comprehension  of  the  class  and  that  will  arouse  their  interest. 
Sufficient  material  will  be  found  in  the  author's  Examination  of 
School  Children  and  Whipple's  Manual.  However,  the  teacher 
can  prepare  similar  material. 

8.  Do  the  students  maintain  the  same  rank  in  the  separate 
tests  of  experiment  No.  7  ?  Rank  all  the  students  for  their  com- 
bined standing  in  all  the  first  five  tests.  Rank  them  for  their 
combined  standing  in  the  logical  memory  tests.  Compare  the 
two  rankings.     What  conclusions  are  warranted? 

9.  You  have  tested,  in  experiment  No.  7,  logical  memory 
when  the  material  was  read  to  the  students.  It  will  now  be  inter- 
esting to  compare  the  results  of  No.  7  with  the  results  obtained 
by  allowing  the  students  to  read  the  material  of  the  test.  For 
this  purpose,  select  portions  from  the  later  chapters  of  this  book. 
Allow  just  time  enough  for  the  selection  to  be  read  once  slowly  by 
the  students,  then  have  it  reproduced  as  in  the  other  logical  memory 
experiment.  Give  several  tests,  if  there  is  sufficient  time.  Find 
the  average  grade  of  each  student,  and  compare  the  results  with 
those  obtained  in  No.  7.     This  will  enable  you  to  compare  the 


150        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

relative  standing  of  the  members  of  the  class,  but  will  not  enable 
you  to  compare  the  two  ways  of  acquiring  facts.  For  this  pur- 
pose, the  stories  would  have  to  be  of  equal  difficulty.  Let  the 
members  of  the  class  plan  an  experiment  that  would  be  adequate 
for  this  purpose. 

10.  A  brief  study  of  the  improvement  of  memory  can  be  made 
by  practicing  a  few  minutes  each  day  for  a  week  or  two,  as  time 
permits,  using  material  that  can  be  easily  prepared,  such  as  lists 
of  common  words.  Let  the  members  of  the  class  plan  the  experi- 
ment.    Use  the  best  plan. 

11.  The  class  can  make  a  study  of  the  relation  of  memory 
to  school  standing  in  one  of  the  grades  below  the  high  school. 
Give  at  least  two  tests  for  logical  memory.  Give  also  the  rote 
memory  tests  described  on  page  189.  Get  the  class  standing  of 
the  pupils  from  the  teacher.  Make  the  comparison  as  suggested 
in  Chapter  I,  page  15.  Or,  the  correlation  can  be  worked  out 
accurately  by  following  the  directions  given  in  the  Examination 
of  School  Children,  page  58,  or  in  Whipple's  Manual,  page  38. 

12.  Let  the  members  of  the  class  make  a  plan  for  the  improve- 
ment of  their  memory  for  the  material  studied  in  school.  Plan 
devices  for  learning  the  material  better  and  for  fixing  it  in  memory. 
At  the  end  of  the  course  in  psychology,  have  an  experience  meeting 
and  study  the  results  reported. 

13.  Prepare  five  lists  of  nonsense  syllables,  with  eight  in  a  list. 
Give  them  as  in  experiment  No.  3,  and  compare  the  results  with 
those  of  that  experiment.  What  do  the  results  indicate  as  to  the 
value  to  memory  of  meaningful  material?  What  educational 
inferences  can  you  make?  In  preparing  the  syllables,  put  a 
vowel  between  two  consonants,  and  use  no  syllable  that  is  a  real 
word. 

14.  A  study  of  the  effects  of  distractions  on  learning  and  mem- 
ory can  be  made  as  follows  :  Let  the  teacher  select  two  paragraphs 
in  later  chapters  of  this  book,  of  equal  length  and  difficulty.  Let 
the  students  read  one  under  quiet  conditions  and  the  other  while 
an  electric  bell  is  ringing  in  the  room.  Compare  the  repro- 
ductions in  the  two  cases. 

15.  From  the  chapter  and  from  the  results  of  all  the  memory 
tests,  let  the  students  enumerate  the  facts  that  have  educational 
significance. 

16.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 


Memory  151 


REFERENCES  FOR   CLASS  READING 

Colvin  and  Bagley  :   Human  Behavior,  Chapter  XV. 
Munsterberg  :    Psychology,  General  and  Applied,  pp.  165-170. 
Pillsbury  :   Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chapters  VI  and  VIII. 
Pyle:    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psycnoiogy,  Chapter  XIII. 
Titchener  :   A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapter  VII. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THINKING 

In  Chapter  III  we  learned  about  sensation.  We  found 
that  when  a  sense  organ  is  stimulated  by  its  appro- 
priate type  of  stimulus,  this  stimulation  travels  through 
the  sensory  nerves  and  sets  up  an  excitation  in  the 
brain.  This  excitation  in  the  brain  gives  us  sensa- 
tion. We  see  if  the  eye  is  stimulated.  We  hear  if 
the  ear  is  stimulated,  etc.  In  Chapter  VII  we  learned 
that  after  the  brain  has  had  an  excitation  giving  rise 
to  sensation,  it  is  capable  of  reviving  this  excitation 
later.  This  renewal  or  revival  of  a  brain  excitation 
gives  us  an  experience  resembling  the  original  sensa- 
tion, only  usually  fainter  and  less  stable.  This  revived 
experience  is  called  image  or  idea.  The  general  process 
of  retention  and  revival  of  experience  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  known  as  memory.  An  idea,  then,  is  a  bit  of 
revived  experience.  A  perception  is  a  bit  of  immedi- 
ate or  primary  experience.  I  am  said  to  perceive  a 
chair  if  the  chair  is  present  before  me,  if  the  light  re- 
flected from  the  chair  is  actually  exciting  my  retinas. 
I  have  an  idea  of  the  chair  when  I  seem  to  see  it,  when 
the  chair  is  not  before  me  or  when  my  eyes  are  shut. 
These  distinctions  were  pointed  out  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  Let  us  now  proceed  to  carry  our  study  of 
ideas  further. 

Association  of  Ideas.  The  subject  of  the  associa- 
tion of  ideas  can  best  be  introduced  by  an  experiment. 

152 


Thinking  153 

Take  a  paper  and  pencil,  and  think  of  the  word  "  horse." 
Write  this  word  down,  and  then  write  down  other  words 
that  come  to  mind.  Write  them  in  the  order  in  which 
they  come  to  mind.  Do  this  for  three  or  four  minutes, 
and  try  the  experiment  several  times,  beginning  with 
a  different  word  each  time.  Make  a  study  of  the  lists 
of  words.  Compare  the  different  lists  and  the  lists 
written  by  different  students. 

In  the  case  of  the  writer,  the  following  words  came 
to  mind  in  the  first  few  seconds :  horse,  bridle,  saddle, 
tail,  harness,  buggy,  whip,  man,  sky,  stars,  sun,  ocean. 
Why  did  these  words  come,  and  why  did  they  come 
in  that  order?  Why  did  the  idea  "  horse  "  suggest 
the  idea  "bridle"?  And  why  did  "bridle"  suggest 
"  saddle  "  ?  Is  there  something  in  the  nature  of  ideas 
that  couples  them  with  certain  other  ideas  and  makes 
them  always  suggest  the  other  ideas?  No,  there  is 
not.  Ideas  become  coupled  together  in  our  experi- 
ence, and  the  coupling  is  in  accordance  with  our  ex- 
perience. Things  that  are  together  in  our  experience 
become  coupled  together  as  ideas.  The  idea  "  horse  " 
may  become  coupled  with  any  other  idea.  The  gen- 
eral law  of  the  association  of  ideas  is  this :  Ideas  are 
joined  together  in  memory  or  revived  experience  as 
they  were  joined  in  the  original  or  perceptive  experi- 
ence. 

But  the  matter  is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  things 
are  experienced  in  different  connections  in  perceptive 
experience.  I  do  not  always  experience  "  horse  "  together 
with  "bridle."  I  sometimes  see  horses  in  a  pasture 
eating  clover.  So,  as  far  as  this  last  experience  is  con- 
cerned, when  I  think  "  horse  "  I  should  also  think 
"  clover."  I  sometimes  see  a  horse  running  when  a  train 
whistles,  so  "  whistle  "  and  "  horse  "  should  be  coupled 


154        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

in  my  mind.  A  horse  once  kicked  me  on  the  shoulder, 
so  "horse"  and  "shoulder"  should  be  connected  in 
my  mind.  And  so  they  are.  The  very  fact  that  these 
various  experiences  come  back  to  me  proves  that  they 
are  connected  in  my  mind  in  accordance  with  the  orig- 
inal experiences.  The  revival  of  various  horse  experi- 
ences has  come  to  me  faster  than  I  could  write  them 
down,  and  they  are  all  bound  together  in  my  memory. 
If  I  should  write  them  all  out,  it  would  take  many 
hours,  perhaps  days. 

Not  only  are  these  "  horse  ideas  "  bound  together 
with  one  another,  but  they  are  bound  more  or  less 
directly,  more  or  less  closely,  to  everything  else  in  my 
life.  I  can,  therefore,  pass  in  thought  from  the  idea 
"  horse  "  to  any  other  idea,  directly  or  indirectly. 
Now,  in  any  given  case,  what  idea  will  actually  come 
first  after  I  have  the  idea  "horse"?  This  depends 
upon  the  tendencies  established  in  the  nervous  system. 
The  brain  process  underlying  the  idea  "  horse  ,:  has 
connections  with  many  other  processes  and  tends  to 
excite  these  processes.  The  factors  that  strengthen 
these  tendencies  or  connections  are  the  frequency, 
recency,  primacy,  and  vividness  of  experience.  Let 
us  consider,  in  some  detail,  each  of  these  factors. 

Primacy  of  Experience.  A  strong  factor  in  deter- 
mining association  is  the  first  experience.  The  first, 
the  original,  coupling  of  ideas  tends  to  persist.  The 
first  connection  is  nearly  always  a  strong  one,  and  is 
also  strengthened  by  frequent  repetition  in  memory. 
Our  first  experience  with  people  and  things  persists 
with  great  strength,  across  the  years,  in  spite  of  other 
associations  and  connections  established  later.  Just 
now  there  comes  to  mind  my  first  experience  with  a 
certain   famous   scientist.     It   was   many   years   ago. 


Thinking  155 


I  was  a  student  in  an  eastern  university.  This  man 
gave  a  public  lecture  at  the  opening  of  the  session.  I 
remember  many  details  of  the  occurrence  with  great 
vividness.  Although  I  studied  under  this  man  for 
three  years,  no  other  experience  with  him  is  more 
prominent  than  the  first.  First  experiences  give  rise 
to  such  strong  connections  between  ideas  that  these 
connections  often  persist  and  hold  their  own  as  against 
other  connections  depending  upon  other  factors. 

The  practical  consequences  of  this  factor  in  teach- 
ing are,  of  course,  evident.  Both  teachers  and  parents 
should  take  great  care  in  the  matter  of  the  first  experi- 
ences of  children.  If  the  idea-connections  of  first 
experiences  are  likely  to  persist,  then  these  connections 
should  be  desirable  ones.  They  should  not  be  use- 
less connections,  nor  should  they,  ordinarily,  be  con- 
nections that  will  have  to  be  radically  undone  later. 
Usually  it  is  not  economical  to  build  up  connections 
between  ideas  that  will  not  serve  permanently,  except 
in  cases  in  which  the  immaturity  of  the  mind  makes 
such  a  procedure  necessary. 

Recency  of  Experience.  The  most  recent  connec- 
tion of  ideas  is  relatively  strong,  and  is  often  the 
determining  one.  But  the  most  recent  connection 
must  be  very  recent  or  it  has  no  especial  value.  If  I 
have  seen  a  certain  friend  to-day,  and  his  name  is  brought 
to  mind  now,  to-day's  experience  with  him  will  likely 
be  brought  to  mind  first.  But  if  my  last  seeing  him 
was  some  days  or  months  ago,  the  idea-connection 
of  the  last  meeting  has  no  great  value.  Of  course, 
circumstances  always  alter  the  matter.  Perhaps  we 
should  say  in  the  last  instance  that,  other  things 
being  equal,  the  last  experience  has  no  special  value. 
If  the  last  experience  was  an  unusual  one,  such  as  a 


156        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

death  or  a  marriage,  then  it  has  a  value  due  to  its 
vividness  and  intensity  and  its  emotional  aspects. 
These  factors  not  only  add  strength  to  the  connections 
made  at  the  time  but  are  the  cause  of  frequent  revivals 
of  this  last  experience  in  memory  in  the  succeeding 
days.  All  these  factors  taken  together  often  give 
a  last  experience  great  associative  strength,  even 
though  the  last  experience  is  not  recent. 

Frequency  of  Experience.  The  most  frequent  con- 
nection of  ideas  is  probably  the  most  important  factor 
of  all  in  determining  future  associations.  The  first 
connection  is  but  one,  and  the  last  connection  is  but 
one,  while  repeated  connections  may  be  many  in  num- 
ber. Connections  which  recur  frequently  usually 
overcome  all  other  connections.  Hence  frequency 
is  the  dominant  factor  in  association.  Most  of  the 
strength  of  first  connections  is  due  to  repetitions  in 
memory  later.  The  first  experience  passes  through 
the  mind  again  and  again  as  memory,  and  thereby 
becomes  strengthened.  The  fact  that  repetition  of 
connections  establishes  these  connections  is,  of  course, 
the  justification  of  drill  and  review  in  school  studies. 
The  practical  needs  of  life  demand  that  certain  ideas 
be  associated  so  that  one  calls  up  the  other.  Teachers 
and  parents,  knowing  these  desirable  connections, 
endeavor  to  fix  them  in  the  minds  of  children  by  repe- 
tition. The  important  facts  of  history,  literature, 
civics,  and  science  we  endeavor,  by  means  of  repetition, 
to  fasten  in  the  child's  mind. 

Vividness  and  Intensity  of  Experience.  A  vivid 
experience  is  one  that  excites  and  arouses  us,  strongly 
stimulating  our  feelings.  Such  experiences  establish 
strong  bonds  of  connection.  When  I  think  of  a  rail- 
road wreck,  I  think  of  one  in  which  I  participated. 


Thinking  157 


The  experience  was  vivid,  intense,  and  aroused  my 
emotions.  I  hardly  knew  whether  I  was  dead  or 
alive.  Then,  secondly,  I  usually  think  of  a  wreck 
which  I  witnessed  in  childhood.  A  train  plunged 
through  a  bridge  and  eighteen  cars  were  piled  up  in 
the  ravine.  The  experience  was  vivid  and  produced 
a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  me. 

The  practical  significance  of  this  factor  is,  of  course, 
great.  When  ideas  are  presented  to  pupils  these 
ideas  should  be  made  clear.  Every  conceivable  device 
should  be  used  to  clarify  and  explain,  —  concrete 
demonstration,  the  use  of  objects  and  diagrams,  pic- 
tures and  drawings,  and  abundant  oral  illustration. 
We  must  be  sure  that  the  one  taught  understands, 
that  the  ideas  become  focal  in  consciousness  and  take 
hold  of  the  individual.  This  is  the  main  factor  in. 
what  is  known  as  "  interest."  An  interesting  thing 
is  one  that  takes  hold  of  us  and  possesses  us  so  that 
we  cannot  get  away  from  it.  Such  experiences  are 
vivid  and  have  rich  emotional  connections  or  accom- 
paniments. Ideas  that  are  experienced  together  at 
such  times  are  strongly  connected. 

Mental  Set  or  Attitude.  Another  influence  always 
operative  in  determining  the  association  of  ideas  is 
mental  set.  By  mental  set  we  mean  the  mood  or 
attitude  one  is  in,  —  whether  one  is  sad  or  glad,  well 
or  ill,  fresh  or  fatigued,  etc.  What  one  has  just  been 
thinking  about,  what  one  has  just  been  doing,  are 
always  factors  that  determine  the  direction  of  associa- 
tion. One  often  notices  the  effects  of  mental  set 
in  reading  newspapers.  If  one's  mind  has  been  deeply 
occupied  with  some  subject  and  one  then  starts  to 
read  a  newspaper,  one  may  actually  miscall  many  of 
the  words  in  the  article  he  is  reading ;   the  words  are 


158        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


made  to  fit  in  with  what  is  in  his  mind.  For  example, 
if  one  is  all  wrought  up  over  a  wedding,  many  words 
beginning  with  "w"  and  having  about  the  same  length 
as  the  word  "  wedding,"  will  be  read  as  "  wedding." 

Mental  set  may  be  permanent  or  temporary.  By 
permanent  we  mean  the  strong  tendencies  that  are 
built  up  by  continued  thought  in  a  certain  direction. 
One  becomes  a  Methodist,  a  Democrat,  a  conservative, 
a  radical,  a  pessimist,  an  optimist,  etc.,  by  continuity 
of  similar  experiences  and  similar  reactions  to  these 
experiences.  Germans,  French,  Irish,  Italians,  Chi- 
nese, have  characteristic  sets  or  ways  of  reacting  to 
typical  situations  that  may  be  called  racial.  These 
prejudicial  ways  of  reacting  may  be  called  racial  sets 
or  attitudes.  Religious,  political,  and  social  prejudices 
may  all  be  called  sets  or  attitudes. 

Temporary  sets  or  attitudes  are  leanings  and  preju- 
dices that  are  due  to  temporary  states  of  mind.  The 
fact  that  one  has  headache,  or  indigestion,  or  is  in  a 
hurry,  or  is  angry,  or  is  hungry,  or  is  emotionally  ex- 
cited over  something  will,  for  the  time,  be  a  factor  in 
determining  the  direction  of  association. 

One  of  the  tasks  of  education  is  to  build  up  sets  or 
attitudes,  permanent  prejudices,  to  be  constant  factors 
in  guiding  association  and,  consequently,  action.  We 
wish  to  build  up  permanent  attitudes  toward  truth, 
honesty,  industry,  sympathy,  zeal,  persistence,  etc. 
It  is  evident  that  attitude  is  merely  an  aspect  of  habit. 
It  is  an  habitual  way  of  reacting  to  a  definite  and 
typical  situation.  This  habitual  way  is  strengthened 
by  repetition,  so  that  set  or  attitude  finally,  after 
years  of  repetition,  becomes  a  part  of  our  nature. 
Our  prejudices  become  as  strong,  seemingly,  as  our 
instinctive  tendencies.    After  a  man  has  thought  in 


Thinking  159 


a  particular  groove  for  years,  it  is  about  as  sure  that 
he  will  come  to  certain  definite  conclusions  on  matters 
in  the  line  of  his  thought  as  that  he  would  give  typical 
instinctive  or  even  reflex  reactions.  We  know  the 
direction  association  will  take  for  a  Presbyterian  in 
religious  matters,  for  a  Democrat  in  political  matters, 
with  about  as  much  certainty  as  we  know  what  their 
actions  will  be  in  situations  that  evoke  instinctive 
reactions. 

Thinking  and  Reasoning.  Thinking  is  the  passing 
of  ideas  in  the  mind.  This  flow  of  ideas  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  association  above  discussed. 
The  order  in  which  the  ideas  come  is  the  order  fixed 
by  experience,  the  order  as  determined  by  the  various 
factors  above  enumerated. 

In  early  life,  one's  mind  is  chiefly  perceptual,  it  is 
what  we  see  and  hear  and  taste  and  smell.  As  one 
grows  older  his  mind  grows  more  and  more  ideational. 
With  increasing  age,  a  larger  and  larger  percentage  of 
our  mental  life  is  made  up  of  ideas,  of  memories.  The 
child  lives  in  the  present,  in  a  world  of  perceptions. 
A  man  is  not  so  much  tied  down  to  the  present ;  he 
lives  in  memory  and  anticipation.  He  thinks  more 
than  does  the  child.  A  man  is  content  to  sit  down 
in  his  chair  and  think  for  hours  at  a  time,  a  child  is 
not.  This  thinking  is  the  passing  of  ideas,  now  one, 
then  another  and  another.  These  ideas  are  the  sur- 
vivals or  revivals  of  our  past  experience.  The  order 
of  their  coming  depends  on  our  past  experience. 

As  I  sit  here  and  write,  there  surge  up  out  of  my  past, 
ideas  of  creeks  and  rivers  and  hills,  horses  and  cows 
and  dogs,  boys  and  girls,  men  and  women,  work  and 
play,  school  days,  friends,  —  an  endless  chain  of 
ideas.     This  "flow"  of  ideas  is  often  started  by  a 


160        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

perception.  For  illustration,  I  see  a  letter  on  the 
table,  a  letter  from  my  brother.  I  then  have  a  visual 
image  of  my  brother.  I  think  of  him  as  I  saw  him 
last.  I  think  of  what  he  said.  I  think  of  his  children, 
of  his  home,  of  his  boyhood,  and  our  early  life  together. 
Then  I  think  of  our  mother  and  the  old  home,  and  so 
on  and  on.  Presently  I  glance  at  a  history  among 
my  books,  and  immediately  think  of  Greece  and  Athens 
and  the  Acropolis,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Socrates,  school- 
mates and  teachers,  and  friends  connected  in  one  way 
or  another  with  my  college  study  of  Greek. 

In  this  description  of  the  process  of  thinking,  I  have 
repeatedly  used  the  words  "  think  of."  I  might 
have  said  instead,  "  there  came  to  mind  ideas  of  Athens, 
ideas  of  friends,"  etc.  Thinking,  then,  is  a  general 
term  for  our  idea-life. 

Reasoning  is  a  form  of  thinking.  Reasoning,  too, 
is  a  flow  of  ideas.  But  while  reasoning  is  thinking, 
it  is  a  special  form  of  thinking;  it  is  thinking  to  a 
purpose.  In  thinking  as  above  described  and  illus- 
trated, no  immediate  ends  of  the  person  are  served; 
while  in  reasoning  some  end  is  always  sought.  In 
reasoning,  the  flow  of  ideas  must  reach  some  particular 
idea  that  will  serve  the  need  of  the  moment,  the  need 
of  the  problem  at  hand.  Reasoning,  then,  is  controlled 
thinking,  thinking  centering  about  a  problem,  about 
a  situation  that  one  must  meet. 

The  statement  that  reasoning  is  controlled  thinking 
needs  some  explanation,  for  the  reader  at  once  is  likely 
to  want  to  know  what  does  the  controlling.  There  is 
not  some  special  faculty  or  power  that  does  the  con- 
trolling. The  control  is  exercised  by  the  set  into  which 
one  is  thrown  by  the  situation  which  confronts  one. 
The  set  puts  certain  nerve-tracts  into  readiness  to 


Thinking  161 

conduct,  or  in  other  words,  makes  certain  groups 
of  ideas  come  into  mind,  and  makes  one  satisfied 
only  if  the  right  ideas  come.  As  long  as  ideas  come 
that  do  not  satisfy,  the  flow  keeps  on,  taking  one 
direction  and  then  another,  in  accordance  with  the 
way  our  ideas  have  become  organized.  An  idea  finally 
comes  that  satisfies.  We  are  then  said  to  have  reached 
a  conclusion,  to  have  made  up  our  mind,  to  have  solved 
our  problem. 

But  the  fact  that  we  are  satisfied  is  no  sure  sign  that 
the  problem  is  correctly  solved.  It  means  only  that 
our  past  experiences,  available  at  the  time  through 
association,  say  that  the  conclusion  is  right.  Or,  in 
more  scientific  terms,  that  the  conclusion  is  in  harmony 
with  our  past  experience,  as  it  has  been  organized  and 
made  available  through  association.  There  is  not 
within  us  a  little  being,  a  reasoner,  that  sits  and  watches 
ideas  file  by  and  passes  judgment  upon  them.  The 
real  judge  is  our  nervous  system  with  its  organized 
bonds  or  connections. 

An  illustration  may  make  the  matter  clearer:  A 
boy  walking  along  in  the  woods  comes  to  a  stream  too 
wide  for  him  to  jump  across.  He  wishes  to  be  on  the 
other  side,  so  here  is  a  situation  that  must  be  met,  a 
problem  that  must  be  solved.  A  flow  of  ideas  is  started 
centering  about  the  problem.  The  flow  is  entirely 
determined  and  directed  by  past  experience  and  the 
present  situation.  The  boy  pauses,  looks  about,  and 
sees  on  the  bank  a  pole  and  several  large  stones.  He 
has  walked  on  poles  and  on  fences,  he  therefore  sees 
himself  putting  the  pole  across  the  stream  and  walking 
on  it.  This  may  be  in  actual  visual  imagery,  or  it 
may  be  in  words.  He  may  merely  say,  "  I  will  put 
the  pole  across  and  walk  on  it."     But,  before  having 


162         The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

time  to  do  it,  he  may  recall  walking  on  poles  that 
turned.  He  is  not  then  satisfied  with  the  pole  idea. 
The  perception  of  stones  may  next  become  clear 
in  his  mind,  and  if  no  inhibiting  or  hindering  idea  comes 
up,  the  stone  idea  carries  him  into  action.  He  piles 
the  stones  into  the  stream  and  walks  across. 

As  was  mentioned  above,  the  flow  of  ideas  may  take 
different  forms.  The  imagery  may  take  any  form  but 
is  usually  visual,  auditory,  motor,  or  verbal. 

Further  discussion  of  the  point  that  reasoning  is 
determined  by  past  experience  may  be  necessary. 
Suppose  the  teacher  ask  the  class  a  number  of  different 
questions,  moral,  religious,  political.  Many  different 
answers  to  the  questions  will  be  received,  in  some  cases 
as  many  answers  to  the  questions  as  there  are  pupils. 
Ask  whether  it  is  ever  right  to  steal,  whether  it  is  ever 
right  to  lie,  whether  it  is  ever  right  to  fight,  whether 
it  is  ever  right  to  disobey  a  parent  or  teacher,  whether 
oak  is  stronger  than  maple,  whether  iron  expands  more 
when  heated  than  does  copper,  whether  one  should 
always  feed  beggars,  etc.  The  answers  received, 
in  each  case,  depend  on  the  previous  experience  of 
the  pupils.  The  more  nearly  alike  the  experiences 
of  the  pupils,  the  more  nearly  alike  will  be  the  answers. 
The  more  divergent  the  experiences,  the  more  different 
will  be  the  answers. 

The  basis  of  reasoning  is  ultimately  the  same  sort 
of  thing  as  the  basis  of  habit.  We  have  repeated 
experiences  of  the  same  kind.  The  ideas  of  these 
experiences  become  welded  together  in  a  definite  way. 
Association  between  certain  groups  of  ideas  becomes 
well  fixed.  Later  situations  involving  these  groups 
of  ideas  set  up  definite  trains  of  association.  We  come 
always  to  definite  conclusions  from  the  same  situations 


Thinking  163 


provided  that  we  are  in  the  same  mental  set  and  the 
factors  involved  are  the  same. 

Throughout  early  life  we  have  definite  moral  and 
religious  ideas  presented  to  us.  We  come  to  think 
in  definite  ways  about  them  or  with  them.  It  there- 
fore comes  about  that  every  day  we  live,  we  are  deter- 
mining the  way  we  shall  in  the  future  reason  about 
things.  We  are  each  day  getting  the  material  for  the 
solution  of  the  problems  that  will  be  presented  to  us 
by  future  situations.  And  the  reason  that  one  of  us 
will  solve  those  problems  in  a  different  way  from  another 
is  because  of  having  somewhat  different  experiences, 
and  of  organizing  them  in  a  different  way. 

Meaning  and  the  Organization  of  Ideas.  In  the 
preceding  paragraphs  we  have  several  times  spoken 
of  the  organization  of  ideas.  Let  us  now  see  just 
what  is  meant  by  this  expression.  Intimately  con- 
nected with  the  organization  of  ideas  is  meaning. 
What  is  the  meaning  of  an  idea?  The  meaning 
of  an  idea  is  another  idea  or  group  of  ideas  that  are 
very  closely  associated  with  it.  When  there  comes 
to  mind  an  idea  that  has  arisen  out  of  repeated  experi- 
ence, there  come  almost  immediately  with  it  other 
ideas,  perhaps  vivid  images  which  have  been  connected 
with  the  same  experience.  Suppose  the  idea  is  of  a 
horse.  If  one  were  asked,  "What  is  a  horse?" 
ideas  of  a  horse  in  familiar  situations  would  present 
themselves.  One  may  see  in  imagination  a  horse 
being  driven,  ridden,  etc.,  and  he  would  then  answer, 
"  Why,  a  horse  is  to  ride,"  or  "  A  horse  is  to  drive," 
or  "  A  horse  is  a  domestic  animal,"  etc. 

Again,  "  What  is  a  cloud  ?  What  is  the  sun  ?  What 
is  a  river?  What  is  justice?  What  is  love?  "  One 
says,  "  A  cloud  is  that  from  which  rain  falls,"  or  "A 


164         The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

cloud  is  partially  condensed  vapor.  The  sun  is  a  round 
thing  in  the  sky  that  shines  by  day.  A  river  is  water 
flowing  along  in  a  low  place  through  the  land.  Jus- 
tice is  giving  to  people  what  they  deserve.  Love  is 
that  feeling  one  has  for  a  person  which  makes  him 
be  kind  to  that  person."  The  answer  that  one  gives 
depends  on  age  and  experience. 

But  it  is  evident  that  when  a  person  is  asked  what 
a  thing  is  or  what  is  the  meaning  of  a  thing,  he  has 
at  once  ideas  that  have  been  most  closely  associated 
with  the  idea  in  question.  Now,  since  the  most  im- 
portant aspect  of  a  thing  is  what  we  can  do  with  it, 
what  use  it  can  be  to  us,  usually  meaning  centers  about 
use.  A  chair  is  to  sit  in,  bread  is  to  eat,  water  is  to 
drink,  clothes  are  to  wear,  a  hat  is  a  thing  to  be  worn  on 
one's  head,  a  shovel  is  to  dig  with,  a  car  is  to  ride  in,  etc. 

Use  is  not  quite  so  evident  in  such  cases  as  the  fol- 
lowing: "  Who  was  Caesar?  Who  was  Homer?  Who 
is  Edison?  What  was  the  Inquisition?  What  were 
the  Crusades  ?  "  However,  one  has,  in  these  cases,  very 
closely  associated  ideas,  and  these  ideas  do  center 
about  what  we  have  done  with  these  men  and  events 
in  our  thinking.  "  Caesar  was  a  warrior.  Homer  was 
a  writer  of  epics.  Edison  is  an  inventor,"  etc.  These 
men  and  events  have  been  presented  to  us  in  various 
situations  as  standing  for  various  things  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  And  when  we  think  of  them,  we  at 
once  think  of  what  they  did,  the  place  they  fill  in  the 
world.     This  constitutes  their  meaning. 

It  is  evident  that  an  idea  may  have  many  meanings. 
And  the  meaning  that  may  come  to  us  at  any  partic- 
ular moment  depends  upon  the  situation.  A  chair,  for 
example,  in  one  situation,  may  come  to  mind  as  a 
thing  to  sit  in ;  in  another  situation,  as  a  thing  to  stand 


Thinking  165 


in  the  corner  and  look  pretty ;  in  another,  a  thing  to 
stand  on  so  that  one  may  reach  the  top  shelf  in  the 
pantry ;  in  another,  a  thing  to  strike  a  burglar  with ; 
in  another,  a  thing  to  knock  to  pieces  to  be  used  to 
make  a  fire. 

The  meaning  of  a  thing  comes  from  our  experience 
with  it,  and  the  thing  usually  comes  to  have  more 
and  more  meanings  as  our  experience  with  it  increases. 
When  we  meet  something  new,  it  may  have  practically 
no  meaning.  Suppose  we  find  a  new  plant  in  the  woods. 
It  has  little  meaning.  We  may  be  able  to  say  only 
that  it  is  a  plant,  or  it  is  a  small  plant.  We  touch 
it  and  it  pricks  us,  and  it  at  once  has  more  meaning. 
It  is  a  plant  that  pricks.  We  bite  into  it  and  find  it 
bitter.  It  is  then  a  plant  that  is  bitter,  etc.  In  such 
a  way,  objects  come  to  have  meaning.  They  acquire 
meaning  according  to  the  connections  in  which  we 
experience  them  and  they  may  take  on  different 
meanings  for  different  persons  because  of  the  different 
experiences  of  these  persons.  The  chief  interest  we 
have  in  objects  is  in  what  use  we  can  make  of  them, 
how  we  can  make  them  serve  our  purposes,  how  we 
can  make  them  contribute  to  our  pleasure. 
I  The  organization  of  experience  is  the  connecting, 
through  the  process  of  association,  of  the  ideas  that 
arise  out  of  our  experience.  Our  ideas  are  organized 
not  only  in  accordance  with  the  way  we  experience 
them  in  the  first  place,  but  in  accordance  with  the  way 
we  think  them  later  in  memory.  Of  course,  ideas 
are  recalled  in  accordance  with  the  way  we  experience 
them,  but  since  they  are  experienced  in  such  a  multitude 
of  connections,  they  are  recalled  later  in  these  various 
connections  and  it  is  possible  in  recall  to  repeat  one 
connection  to  the  exclusion  of  others. 


166        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Organization  can  therefore  be  a  selective  process. 
Although  "  horse  "  is  experienced  in  a  great  variety  of 
situations  or  connections,  for  our  purposes  we  can  select 
some  one  or  more  of  these  connections  and  by  repeti- 
tion in  recalling  it,  strengthen  these  connections  to 
the  exclusion  of  others.  Herein  lies  one  of  the  greatest 
possibilities  in  thinking  and  reasoning,  which  enables 
us,  to  an  extent,  to  be  independent  of  original  experi- 
ence. We  must  have  had  experience,  of  course,  but 
the  strength  of  bonds  between  ideas  need  not  depend 
upon  original  experience,  but  rather  upon  the  way 
in  which  these  ideas  are  recalled  later,  and  especially 
upon  the  number  of  times  they  are  recalled. 

It  is  in  the  matter  of  the  organization  of  experience 
that  teachers  and  parents  can  be  of  great  help  to  young 
people.  Children  do  not  know  what  connections  of 
ideas  will  be  most  useful  in  the  future.  People  who 
have  had  more  experience  know  better  and  can,  by 
direction  and  suggestion,  lead  the  young  to  form, 
and  strengthen  by  repetition,  those  connections  of 
ideas  that  will  be  most  useful  later. 

In  the  various  school  studies,  a  mass  of  ideas  is 
presented.  These  ideas,  isolated  or  with  random  con- 
nections, will  be  of  little  service  to  the  pupils.  They 
must  be  organized  with  reference  to  future  use.  This 
organization  must  come  about  through  thinking 
over  these  ideas  in  helpful  connections.  The  teacher 
knows  best  what  these  helpful  connections  are  and 
must  help  the  pupil  to  make  them. 

Suppose  the  topic  studied  in  history  is  the  Battle  of 
Bunker  Hill.  The  teacher  should  assist  the  child 
to  think  the  battle  over  in  many  different  connections. 
There  are  various  geographical,  historical,  and  literary 
aspects  of  the  battle  that  are  of  importance.     These 


Thinking  167 


aspects  should  be  brought  to  mind  and  related  by  being 
thought  of  together.  Thinking  things  together  binds 
them  together  as  ideas;  and  later  when  one  idea 
comes,  the  others  that  have  been  joined  with  it  in  the 
past  in  thought,  come  also.  Therefore,  in  studying 
the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  the  pupil  not  only  reads 
about  it,  but  gets  a  map  and  studies  the  geography 
of  it,  works  out  the  causes  that  led  up  to  the  battle, 
studies  the  consequences  that  followed,  reads  speeches 
and  poems  that  have  been  made  and  written  since  con- 
cerning the  battle,  the  monument,  etc. 

Similarly,  all  the  topics  studied  in  school  should 
be  thought  over  and  organized  with  reference  to  mean- 
ing and  with  reference  to  future  use.  As  a  result 
of  such  procedure,  all  the  topics  become  organized 
and  crystallized,  with  all  related  ideas  closely  bound 
together  in  association. 

One  of  the  greatest  differences  in  people  is  in  the 
organization  of  their  ideas.  Of  course,  people  differ 
in  original  experience,  but  they  differ  more  in  the 
way  they  organize  this  experience  and  prepare  it  for 
future  needs.  Just  as  in  habit-formation  we  should 
by  exercise  and  practice  acquire  those  kinds  of  skill 
that  will  serve  us  best  in  the  future,  so  in  getting  knowl- 
edge we  should  by  repetition  strengthen  the  connections 
between  those  ideas  that  we  shall  need  to  have  con- 
nected in  the  future.  All  education  looks  forward 
and  is  preparatory.  As  a  result  of  training  in  the 
organization  of  ideas,  a  pupil  can  learn  how  to  organize 
his  experience,  in  a  measure,  independent  of  the  teacher. 
He  learns  to  know,  himself,  what  ideas  are  significant, 
and  what  connections  of  ideas  will  be  most  helpful. 
Such  an  outcome  should  be  one  of  the  ends  of  school 
training. 


168        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Training  in  Reasoning.  We  have  already  men- 
tioned ways  in  which  a  child  can  be  helped  in  gaining 
power  and  facility  in  reasoning.  In  this  paragraph 
we  shall  discuss  the  matter  more  fully.  There  are 
three  aspects  of  training  in  reasoning,  one  with  refer- 
ence to  original  experience,  one  with  reference  to  the 
organization  of  this  experience  as  just  discussed,  and 
one  with  reference  to  certain  habits  of  procedure  in 
the  recall  and  use  of  experience. 

(1)  Original  experience.  Before  reasoning  in  any 
field,  one  must  have  experience  in  that  field.  There 
is  no  substitute  for  experience.  After  having  the 
experience,  it  can  be  organized  in  various  ways,  but 
experience  there  must  be.  Experience  may  be  pri- 
mary, with  things  themselves,  or  it  may  be  secondary, 
received  second  hand  through  books  or  through  spoken 
language.  We  cannot  think  without  ideas,  and  ideas 
come  only  through  perceptions  of  one  kind  or  another. 

Originally,  all  experience  arises  out  of  sensations. 
Language  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  profit  through 
the  perceptual  experience  of  others.  But  even  when 
we  receive  our  experience  second  hand,  our  own  pri- 
mary experience  must  enable  us  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  what  we  read  and  hear  about,  else  it  is 
valueless  to  us.  Therefore,  if  we  wish  to  be  able  to 
reason  in  the  field  of  physics,  of  botany,  of  chem- 
istry, of  medicine,  of  law,  or  of  agriculture,  we  must 
get  experience  in  those  fields.  The  raw  material  of 
thought  comes  only  through  experience.  In  such  a 
subject  as  physical  geography,  for  example,  the  words 
of  the  book  have  little  meaning  unless  the  child  has 
had  original  experience  in  the  matter  discussed.  He 
must  have  seen  hills  and  valleys  and  rivers  and  lakes 
and  rocks  and  weathering,  and  all  the  various  processes 


Thinking  169 

discussed  in  physical  geography ;  otherwise,  the  read- 
ing of  the  text  is  almost  valueless.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  all  subjects.  To  reason  in  any  subject  we  must 
have  had  original  experience  in  it. 

(2)  The  organization  of  experience.  After  experi- 
ence comes  its  organization.  This  point  has  already 
been  fully  explained.  It  was  pointed  out  that  organi- 
zation consists  in  thinking  our  experience  over  again 
in  helpful  relations.  Here  parents  and  teachers  can 
be  of  very  great  service  to  children. 

(3)  Habits  of  thought.  There  are  certain  habits 
of  procedure  in  reasoning,  apart  from  the  association 
of  the  ideas.  One  can  form  the  habit  of  putting  cer- 
tain questions  to  oneself  when  a  problem  is  presented, 
so  that  certain  types  of  relations  are  called  up.  If  one 
is  a  scientist,  one  looks  for  causes.  If  one  is  a  lawyer, 
one  looks  up  the  court  decisions.  If  one  is  a  physi- 
cian, one  looks  for  symptoms,  etc. 

One  of  the  most  important  habits  in  connection  with 
reasoning  is  the  habit  of  caution.  Reasoning  is  wait- 
ing, waiting  for  ideas  to  come  that  will  be  adequate 
for  the  situation.  One  must  form  the  habit  of  waiting 
a  reasonable  length  of  time  for  associations  to  run 
their  course.  If  one  act  too  soon,  before  his  organized 
experience  has  had  time  to  pass  in  review,  he  may  act 
improperly.  Therefore  one  must  be  trained  to  a 
proper  degree  of  caution.  Of  course,  caution  may  be 
overdone.  One  must  act  sometime,  one  cannot  wait 
always. 

Another  habit  is  that  of  testing  out  a  conclusion 
before  it  is  finally  put  into  practice.  It  is  often  pos- 
sible to  put  a  conclusion  to  some  sort  of  test  before  it 
is  put  to  the  real  test,  just  as  one  makes  a  model 
and  tries  out  an  invention  on  a  small  scale.     One  should 


170        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

not  have  full  confidence  in  a  conclusion  that  is  the 
result  of  reasoning,  till  the  conclusion  has  been  put 
to  the  final  test  of  experiment,  of  trial. 

This  last  statement  leads  us  to  the  real  function  of 
reasoning.  Reason  points  the  way  to  action  in  a 
new  situation.  After  the  situation  is  repeated  for 
a  sufficient  number  of  times,  action  passes  into  the 
realm  of  habit. 

Language  and  Thinking.  The  fact  that  man  has 
spoken  and  written  language  is  of  the  greatest  signifi- 
cance. It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  language 
is  a  means  through  which  we  can  get  experience  second- 
hand. This  proves  to  be  a  great  advantage  to  man. 
But  language  gives  us  still  another  advantage.  With- 
out language,  thinking  is  limited  to  the  passing  of 
sensory  images  that  arise  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  association.  But  man  can  name  things  and 
the  attributes  of  things,  and  these  names  become  asso- 
ciated, so  that  thinking  comes  to  be,  in  part  at  least, 
a  matter  of  words.  Thinking  is  talking  to  oneself. 
One  cannot  talk  without  language. 

The  importance  that  attaches  to  language  can 
hardly  be  overestimated.  When  the  child  acquires 
the  use  of  language,  he  has  acquired  the  use  of  a  tool, 
the  importance  of  which  to  thinking  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  tool.  Now,  one  can  think  without 
language,  in  the  sense  that  memory  images  come  and 
go,  —  we  have  defined  thinking  as  the  flow  of  imagery, 
the  passing  or  succession  of  ideas.  But  after  we  have 
named  things,  thinking,  particularly  reasoning,  be- 
comes largely  verbal,  or  as  we  said  above,  talking  to 
oneself. 

Not  only  do  we  give  names  to  concrete  things  but 
we  give  names  to  specific  attributes  and  to  relations. 


Thinking  171 

As  we  organize  and  analyze  our  experiences,  there 
appear  uniformities,  principles,  laws.  To  these  we 
give  names,  such  as  white,  black,  red,  weight,  length, 
thickness,  justice,  truth,  sin,  crime,  heat,  cold,  mortal, 
immortal,  evolution,  disintegration,  love,  hate,  envy, 
jealousy,  possible,  impossible,  probable,  etc.  We 
spoke  above  of  meanings.  To  meanings  we  give 
names,  so  that  a  single  word  comes  to  stand  for  mean- 
ings broad  and  significant,  the  result  of  much  experi- 
ence. Such  words  as  "  evolution  "  and  "  gravitation," 
single  words  though  they  are,  represent  a  wide  range  of 
experiences  and  bring  these  experiences  together  and 
crystallize  them  into  a  single  expression,  which  we  use 
as  a  unit  in  our  thought. 

Language,  therefore,  makes  thought  easier  and  its 
accomplishment  greater.  After  we  have  studied  Caesar 
for  some  years,  the  name  comes  to  represent  the  epit- 
ome, the  bird's-eye  view  of  a  great  man.  A  similar 
thing  is  true  of  our  study  of  other  men  and  movements 
and  things.  Single  words  come  to  represent  a  multi- 
tude of  experiences.  Then  these  words  become  asso- 
ciated and  organized  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
of  association  discussed  above,  so  that  it  comes  about 
that  the  older  we  are,  the  more  we  come  to  think  in 
words,  and  the  more  these  words  represent.  The  older 
we  are,  the  more  abstract  our  thinking  becomes,  the 
more  do  our  words  come  to  stand  for  meanings  and 
attributes  and  laws  that  have  come  out  of  the  organi- 
zation of  our  experience. 

It  is  evident  that  the  accuracy  of  our  thinking 
depends  upon  these  words  standing  for  the  truth, 
depends  upon  whether  we  have  organized  our  experi- 
ence in  accordance  with  facts.  If  our  word  "  Caesar  " 
does  not  stand  for  the  real  Caesar,  then  all  our  think- 


172        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


ing  in  which  Caesar  enters  will  be  incorrect.  If  our 
word  "  justice  "  does  not  stand  for  the  real  justice,  then 
all  our  thinking  in  which  justice  enters  will  be  in- 
correct. 

This  discussion  points  to  the  tremendous  impor- 
tance of  the  organization  of  experience.  Truth  is  the 
agreement  of  our  thought  with  the  thing,  with  reality. 
We  must  therefore  help  the  young  to  see  the  world 
clearly  and  to  organize  what  they  see  in  accordance 
with  the  facts  and  with  a  view  to  future  use.  Then 
the  units  of  this  organized  experience  are  to  be  tagged, 
labeled,  by  means  of  words,  and  these  words  or  labels 
become  the  vehicles  of  thought,  and  the  outcome  of 
the  thinking  depends  on  the  validity  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  our  experience. 

Summary.  Thinking  is  the  passing  of  ideas  in  the  mind;  its 
basis  is  in  the  association  of  memory  ideas.  The  basis  of  asso- 
ciation is  in  original  experience,  ideas  becoming  bound  together  in 
memory  as  originally  experienced.  The  factors  of  association 
are  primacy,  recency,  frequency,  intensity,  and  mental  set  or 
attitude.  Reasoning  is  thinking  to  a  purpose.  We  can  be 
trained  in  reasoning  by  being  taught  to  get  vivid  experience  in 
the  first  place  and  in  organizing  this  experience  in  helpful  ways, 
having  in  mind  future  use. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  A  series  of  experiments  should  be  performed  to  make  clear 
to  the  students  that  the  basis  of  the  association  of  ideas  is  in 
experience  and  not  in  the  nature  of  the  ideas  themselves. 

(a)  Let  the  students,  starting  with  the  same  word,  write  down 
all  the  ideas  that  come  to  mind  in  one  minute.  The  teacher 
should  give  the  initial  idea,  as  sky,  hate,  music,  clock,  table,  or 
wind.  The  first  ten  ideas  coming  to  each  student  might  be  written 
on  the  blackboard  for  study  and  comparison.  Are  any  series 
alike?  Is  the  tenth  idea  in  one  series  the  same  as  that  in  any 
other  ? 


Thinking  173 

(b)  For  a  study  of  the  various  factors  of  association,  perform 
the  following  experiment:  Let  the  teacher  prepare  a  list  of  fifty 
words  —  nouns  and  adjectives,  such  as  wood,  murder,  goodness, 
bad,  death,  water,  love,  angel.  Read  the  words  to  the  class  and 
let  each  student  write  down  the  first  idea  that  comes  to  mind 
in  each  case.  After  the  list  is  finished,  let  each  student  try  to 
find  out  what  the  determining  factor  was  in  each  case,  whether 
primacy,  frequency,  recency,  vividness,  or  mental  set.  When 
the  study  is  completed,  the  student's  paper  should  contain  three 
columns,  the  first  column  showing  the  stimulus  words,  the  second 
showing  the  response  words,  the  third  showing  the  determining 
factors.  The  first  column  should  be  dictated  and  copied  after 
the  response  words  have  been  written. 

(c)  Study  the  data  in  (a)  and  (&),  noting  the  variety  of  ideas 
that  come  to  different  students  for  the  same  stimulus  word.  It 
will  be  seen  that  they  come  from  a  great  variety  of  experiences  and 
from  all  parts  of  one's  life  from  childhood  to  the  present,  show- 
ing that  all  our  experiences  are  bound  together  and  that  we  can 
go  from  one  point  to  any  other,  directly  or  indirectly. 

2.  Perform  an  experiment  to  determine  how  each  member  of 
the  class  thinks,  i.e.  in  what  kind  of  imagery.  Let  each  plan  a 
picnic  in  detail.  How  do  they  do  it?  Do  they  see  it  or  hear  it 
or  seem  to  act  it?     Or  does  it  happen  in  words  merely? 

3.  Think  of  the  events  of  yesterday.  How  do  they  come  to 
you?  Do  your  images  seem  to  be  visual,  auditory,  motor,  or 
verbal?  Do  you  seem  to  have  all  kinds  of  imagery?  Is  one 
kind  predominant? 

4.  Test  the  class  for  speed  of  free  association  as  described  on 
page  193.  Repeat  the  experiment  at  least  five  times  and  rank  the 
members  of  the  class  from  the  results. 

5.  Similarly,  test  speed  for  controlled  association  as  described 
on  page  195  and  rank  the  members  of  the  class. 

6.  Compare  the  rankings  in  Nos.  4  and  5. 

7.  The  teacher  can  extend  the  controlled  association  tests  by 
preparing  lists  that  show  different  kinds  of  logical  relations  with 
one  another,  from  genus  to  species,  from  species  to  genus,  from 
verb  to  object,  from  subject  to  verb,  etc.  Do  the  students  main- 
tain the  same  rank  in  the  various  types  of  experiments?  Do  the 
ranks  in  these  tests  correspond  to  the  students'  ranks  in  think- 
ing in  the  school  subjects? 


174        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

8.  At  least  two  series  of  experiments  in  reasoning  should  be 
performed,  one  to  show  the  nature  of  reasoning  and  the  other  to 
show  the  ability  of  the  members  of  the  class. 

(a)  Put  several  problems  to  the  class,  similar  to  the  following : 
What  happens  to  a  wet  board  laid  out  in  the  sunshine?  Explain. 
Suppose  corn  is  placed  in  three  vessels,  1,  2,  and  3.  Number  1 
is  se'aled  up  air  tight  and  kept  warm?  Number  2  is  kept  open 
and  warm?  Number  3  is  kept  open  and  warm  and  moist. 
What  happens  in  each  case?     Explain. 

Condensed  milk  does  not  sour  as  long  as  the  can  remains  un- 
opened. After  the  can  is  opened,  the  milk  sours  if  allowed  to  be- 
come warm ;  it  does  not  sour  if  kept  frozen.  Why  ?  Two  bars 
of  metal  are  riveted  together.  One  bar  is  lead,  the  other  iron. 
What  happens  when  the  bars  are  heated  to  150  C?  500  C?  1000  C? 
2000  C  ?  Answer  the  following  questions :  Is  it  ever  right  to 
steal?  To  kill  a  person?  To  lie?  Which  are  unwise  and  mis- 
taken, Republicans  or  Democrats? 

In  the  above,  do  all  come  to  the  same  conclusion?  Why? 
Were  any  unable  to  come  to  a  conclusion  at  all  on  some  questions  ? 
Why?  Do  the  experiments  make  it  clear  that  reasoning  is  de- 
pendent upon  experience? 

(6)  Let  the  teacher  prepare  five  problems  in  reasoning  well 
within  the  experience  of  the  class,  and  find  the  speed  and  accuracy 
of  the  students  in  solving  them.  Compare  the  results  with  those 
in  the  controlled  association  tests.  Test  the  class  with  various 
kinds  of  mechanical  puzzles. 

9.  The  students  should  study  several  people  to  ascertain  how 
well  those  people  have  their  experience  organized.  Is  their 
experience  available?  Can  they  come  to  the  point  immediately, 
or,  are  they  hazy,  uncertain,  and  impractical  ? 

10.  It  is  claimed  that  we  have  two  types  of  people,  theoretical  and 
practical.     This  is  to  some  extent  true.     What  is  the  explanation  ? 

11.  From  the  point  of  view  of  No.  10,  compare  teachers  and 
engineers. 

12.  If  anything  will  work  in  theory,  will  it  work  in  practice? 

13.  From  what  you  have  learned  in  the  chapter  and  from  the 
experiments,  write  a  paper  on  training  in  reasoning. 

14.  What  are  the  main  defects  of  the  schools  with  reference  to 
training  children  to  think? 

15.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 


Thinking  175 


REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS   READING 

Colvin  and  Bagley  :  Human  Behavior,  Chapters  XVI  and  XVIII. 

Dewey:   How  We  Think,  Parts  I  and  III. 

Munsterberg  :   Psychology,  General  and  Applied,  Chapters  VIII 

and  XII;   also  pp.  192-195. 
Pillsbury  :  Essentials  of  Psychology,  Chapters  VI  and  IX. 
Pyle  :    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology,  Chapter  XV. 
Titchener  :  A  Beginner's  Psychology,  Chapters  V,  VI,  and  X. 


CHAPTER   IX 
INDIVIDUAL   DIFFERENCES 

Physical  Differences.  One  never  sees  two  people 
whose  bodies  are  exactly  alike.  They  differ  in  height 
or  weight  or  color  of  the  skin.  They  differ  in  the  color 
of  the  hair  or  eyes,  in  the  shape  of  the  head,  or  in  such 
details  as  size  and  shape  of  the  ear,  size  and  shape  of 
the  nose,  chin,  mouth,  teeth,  feet,  hands,  fingers,  toes, 
nails,  etc.  The  anatomist  tells  us  that  we  differ  in- 
ternally just  as  we  do  externally.  While  the  internal 
structure  of  one  person  has  the  same  general  plan  as 
that  of  another,  there  being  the  same  number  of  bones, 
muscles,  organs,  etc.,  there  are  always  differences  in 
detail.  We  are  built  on  the  same  plan,  i.e.  we  are 
made  after  a  common  type.  We  vary,  above  and  be- 
low this  type  or  central  tendency. 

Weight  may  be  taken  for  illustration.  If  we  should 
weigh  the  first  thousand  men  we  meet,  we  should  find 
light  men,  heavy  men,  and  men  of  medium  weight. 
There  would  be  few  light  men,  few  heavy  men,  but  many 
men  of  medium  weight.  This  fact  is  well  shown  in 
diagram  by  what  is  known  as  a  curve  of  distribution 
or  frequency  surface,  which  is  constructed  as  follows : 
Draw  a  base  line  A  B,  and  on  this  line  mark  off  equal 
distances  to  represent  the  various  weights.  At  the 
left  end  put  the  number  representing  the  lightest  men 
and  at  the  right  the  number  representing  the  heaviest 

176 


Individual  Differences 


177 


men ;  the  other  weights  come  in  between  in  order. 
Then  select  a  scale ;  we  will  say  a  millimeter  in  height 
above  the  base  line  represents  one  person  of  the  weight 
represented  on  the  base,  and  in  drawing  the  upper 
part  of  the  figure,  A  C  B,  we  have  but  to  measure  up 


75- 

C 

70  - 

T n 

| 

65  - 

1 
1 

60  - 

1 

55  - 

1 
1 

50  - 

1 

1 

WEIGHT 

45  - 

40  - 

35  - 

30  - 

25  - 

20  - 

! ., 

15  - 

i 

10  - 

i 

i 
i 

L -, 

5  - 

._ ! 

1 ^ 

1 

1 

i\ 

1 

A 

i 

j     1 

HO-99    100-119  120-139  140-159160-179  180-199  200-219  220-239  240-259 

Figure  V  —  Frequency  Surface  —  Weight 
The  solid  line  represents  men,  the  broken  line,  women. 


B 


one  millimeter  for  each  person  weighed,  of  the  weight 
indicated  below  on  the  base. 

A  study  of  this  frequency  surface  shows  a  tendency 
for  people  to  be  grouped  about  the  central  tendency 
or  average.  There  are  many  people  of  average  weight 
or  nearly  so,  but  few  people  who  deviate  widely  from 
the  average  weight.    If  we  measure  people  with  refers 


178 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


ence  to  any  other  physical  characteristic,  or  any  mental 
characteristic,  we  get  a  similar  result,  we  find  them 
grouped  about  an  average  or  central  tendency. 

Mental   Differences.     Just  as  we  differ  physically, 
so  also  we  differ  mentally,  and  in  the  various  aspects 


ieon 

150 

uo 

130 
120 
1.10- 
100- 

90- 

80 

70 

60-\ 

50 

40 

30 

20-\ 

10 


FREE 
ASSOCIATION 


r* 

i 


i 


i 
i 


10 
19 


20 
29 


30 
39 


40 
49 


50 
59 


60 
69 


70 
79 


80 
89 


90 
99 


100 
109 


Figure  VI  —  Frequency  Surface  —  Free  Association 

Solid  line,  men ;  broken  line,  women.    The  numbers  below  the 

base  represent  the  number  of  words  written  in  the  Free  Association 

test,  and  the  numbers  at  the  left  represent  the  number  of  people 

making  the  respective  scores. 

of  our  behavior.  The  accompanying  diagram  (Free 
Association)  shows  the  distribution  of  a  large  number 
of  men  and  women  with  respect  to  the  speed  of  their 
flow  of  ideas.  When  men  and  women  are  measured 
with  respect  to  any  mental  function,  a  similar  dis- 
tribution is  found. 

An  interesting  question  is  whether  our  mental  dif- 


Individual  Differences  179 

ferences  have  any  relation  or  connection  with  one  an- 
other. If  one  mental  characteristic  is  of  high  order, 
are  all  the  others  of  high  order  also?  Does  a  good 
memory  indicate  a  high  order  of  attention,  of  associa- 
tion, of  imagination,  of  learning  capacity?  Experi- 
ments show  that  mental  characteristics  have  at  least 
some  degree  of  independence.  But  the  rule  is  that 
they  generally  go  together,  a  high  order  of  ability  in 
one  mental  function  indicating  a  high  order  of  ability 
in  at  least  some  others,  and  a  low  order  of  ability  in 
one  function  indicating  a  low  order  in  other  functions. 

However,  it  seems  that  abilities  that  are  very  much 
specialized,  such  as  musical  ability,  artistic  ability,  etc., 
may  exist  in  high  order  while  other  mental  functions 
may  be  only  mediocre.  It  is  a  common  thing  for  a 
musical  person  to  be  of  rather  poor  ability  otherwise. 
To  the  extent  that  special  abilities  require  specialized 
differences  in  the  structure  of  brain,  nervous  system, 
or  sense  organ,  they  can  exist  in  some  degree  of  inde- 
pendence of  other  functions.  Musical  ability  to  some 
extent  does  require  some  such  differences  and  may 
therefore  be  found  either  with  a  high  or  a  low  degree  of 
ability  in  other  characteristics. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  at  maturity  the  unequal 
power  of  mental  functions  in  the  same  person  may  be 
partly  due  to  the  fact  that  one  function  has  been  exer- 
cised and  others  neglected.  A  person  having  very 
strong  musical  tendencies  is  likely  to  have  such  a  great 
interest  in  music  that  he  will  think  other  activities  are 
not  worth  while,  and  will  consequently  neglect  these 
other  activities.  It  will  therefore  turn  out  that  at 
maturity  the  great  differences  in  mental  functions  in 
such  a  person  are  in  part  due  to  exercise  of  one  function 
and  neglect  of  others.     But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 


180        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

'■    '  ■  ■  i  ,  .,— -i— i—  _,  i  ir~i 

in  many  cases  there  are  large  original,  inherited  differ- 
ences, the  individual  being  poor  in  one  aspect  of  mind 
and  good  in  others.  Feeble-minded  people  are  usually- 
poor  in  all  important  aspects  of  mind.  However,  one 
sometimes  finds  a  feeble-minded  person  having  musical 
or  artistic  ability,  and  often  such  a  person  has  a  good 
rote  memory,  sometimes  a  good  verbal  memory. 
However,  the  so-called  higher  mental  functions  — 
logical  memory,  controlled  association,  and  construc- 
tive imagination  —  are  all  poor  in  a  feeble-minded 
person. 

Each  mental  function  may  be  looked  upon  as  in 
some  measure  independent;  each  is  found  existing  in 
people  in  varying  degrees  from  zero  ability  up  to  what 
might  be  called  genius  ability.  The  frequency  curves 
in  Fig.  VI  show  this.  Take  rote  memory  for  example. 
Idiots  are  found  with  practically  zero  ability  in  rote 
memory.  At  the  other  extreme,  we  find  mathematical 
prodigies  who,  after  watching  a  long  freight  train  pass 
and  noting  the  numbers  of  the  cars,  can  repeat  correctly 
the  number  of  each  car.  Rote  memory  abilities  can 
be  found  representing  every  step  between  these  two 
extremes.  This  principle  of  distribution  holds  true 
in  the  case  of  all  mental  functions.  We  find  persons 
practically  without  them,  and  others  possessing  them 
in  the  highest  order,  but  most  people  are  grouped 
about  the  average  ability. 

Detecting  Mental  Differences.  It  has  already  been 
said  that  mind  has  many  different  aspects  and  that 
people  differ  with  respect  to  these  aspects.  Now  let 
us  ask  how  we  can  measure  the  degree  of  development 
of  these  aspects  or  functions  of  mind.  We  measure 
them  just  as  we  measured  muscular  speed  as  described 
in  the  first  chapter.     Each  mental  function  means 


Individual  Differences  181 

ability  to  do  something  —  to  learn,  to  remember,  to 
form  images,  to  reason,  etc.  To  measure  these  differ- 
ent capacities  or  functions  we  have  but  to  require 
that  the  person  under  consideration  do  something,  as 
learn,  remember,  etc.,  and  measure  how  well  and  how 
fast  he  does  it,  just  as  we  would  measure  how  far  he 
can  jump,  how  fast  he  can  run,  etc. 

In  such  measurements,  the  question  of  practice  is 
always  involved.  If  we  measure  running  ability,  we 
find  that  some  are  in  practice  while  others  are  not. 
Those  in  practice  can  run  at  very  nearly  their  ultimate 
capacity.  Those  who  are  not  in  practice  can  be 
trained  to  run  much  faster  than  they  do.  To  get  a 
true  measure  of  running  capacity,  we  should  practice 
the  persons  to  be  measured  till  each  runs  up  to  the 
limit  of  his  capacity,  and  then  measure  each  one's 
speed.  The  same  thing  is  true,  to  some  extent,  when 
we  come  to  measure  mental  functions  proper.  How- 
ever, the  life  that  children  live  gives  exercise  to  all 
fundamental  functions  of  the  mind,  and  unless  some 
of  the  children  tested  have  had  experience  which  would 
tend  to  develop  some  mental  functions  in  a  special  way, 
tests  of  the  various  aspects  of  learning  capacity, 
memory,  association,  imagination,  etc.,  are  a  fairly 
good  measure  of  original,  inherited  tendencies. 

Of  course,  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  meas- 
urable differences  in  the  influence  of  environment  on 
children,  and  when  these  differences  are  extreme,  no 
doubt  the  influence  is  shown  in  the  development  of  the 
child's  mind.  A  child  reared  in  a  home  where  all  the 
influences  favor  its  mental  development,  ought  to  show 
a  measurable  difference  in  such  development  when  com- 
pared with  a  child  reared  in  a  home  where  all  the  in- 
fluences are  unfavorable.     It  is  difficult  to  know  to 


182        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

what  extent  this  is  true,  for  the  hereditary  and  environ- 
mental influences  are  usually  in  harmony,  the  child  of 
good  hereditary  stock  having  good  environmental  in- 
fluences, and  vice  versa.  When  this  is  not  the  case, 
i.e.  when  a  child  of  good  stock  is  reared  under  poor 
environmental  influences,  or  when  a  child  of  poor 
stock  is  reared  under  good  influences,  the  results  seem 
to  show  that  the  differences  in  environment  have  little 
effect  on  mental  development,  as  far  as  the  funda- 
mental functions  are  concerned,  except  in  the  most 
extreme  cases. 

Each  mental  function  is  capable  of  some  develop- 
ment. It  can  be  brought  up  to  the  limit  of  its  possi- 
bilities. But  recent  experiments  indicate  that  such 
development  is  not  very  great  in  the  case  of  the  ele- 
mentary, fundamental  functions.  Training,  however, 
has  a  much  greater  effect  on  complex  mental. activities 
that  involve  several  functions.  Rote  memory  is 
rather  simple ;  it  cannot  be  much  affected  by  training. 
The  memory  for  ideas  is  more  complex ;  it  can  be  con- 
siderably affected  by  training.  The  original  and  fun- 
damental functions  of  the  mind  depend  upon  the  nature 
of  the  nervous  system  which  is  bequeathed  to  us  by 
heredity.  This  cannot  be  much  changed.  However, 
training  has  considerable  effect  on  the  coordinations 
and  combinations  of  mental  functions.  Therefore,  the 
more  complex  the  mental  activities  which  we  are  test- 
ing, the  more  likely  they  are  to  have  been  affected  by 
differences  in  experience  and  training. 

If  we  should  designate  the  logical  memory  capacity 
of  one  person  by  10,  and  that  of  another  by  15,  by  prac- 
tice we  might  bring  the  first  up  to  15  and  the  second 
to  22^,  but  we  could  not  equalize  them.  We  could 
never  make  the  memory  of  the  one  equal  to  that  of 


Individual  Differences  183 

the  other.  In  an  extreme  case,  we  might  find  one  child 
whose  experience  had  been  such  that  his  logical  memory 
was  working  up  to  the  limit  of  its  capacity,  while  the 
other  had  had  little  practice  in  logical  memory  and 
was  therefore  far  below  his  real  capacity.  In  such  a 
case,  a  test  would  not  show  the  native  difference,  it 
would  show  only  the  present  difference  in  functioning 
capacity. 

Fairly  adequate  tests  for  the  most  important  mental 
functions  have  been  worked  out.  A  series  of  group 
tests  with  directions  and  norms  follow.  The  members 
of  the  class  can  use  these  tests  in  studying  the  individual 
differences  in  other  people.  The  teacher  will  find 
other  tests  in  the  author's  Examination  of  School  Chil- 
dren, and  in  Whipple's  Manual  of  Mental  and  Physical 
Tests. 

MENTAL  TESTS 

General  Directions 

The  results  of  the  mental  tests  in  the  school  will  be 
worse  than  useless  unless  the  tests  are  given  with  the 
greatest  care  and  scientific  precision.  Every  test  should 
be  most  carefully  explained  to  the  children  so  that 
they  will  know  exactly  what  they  are  to  do.  The  matter 
must  be  so  presented  to  them  that  they  will  put  forth 
all  possible  effort.  They  must  take  the  tests  seriously. 
Great  care  must  be  taken  to  see  that  there  is  no  cheat- 
ing. The  work  of  each  child  should  be  his  own  work. 
In  those  tests  in  which  time  is  an  important  element, 
the  time  must  be  carefully  kept,  with  a  stop  watch  if  one 
is  available.  The  papers  should  be  distributed  for  the 
tests  and  turned  face  downward  on  the  pupil's  desk. 
The  pupil,  when  all  are  ready  to  begin,  should  take  the 


184 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


paper  in  his  hand  and  at  the  signal  "  begin  "  turn  it 
over  and  begin  work,  and  when  the  signal  "  stop  "  is 
given,  should  quit  work  instantly  and  turn  the  paper 

over.  Before  the  work 
begins,  the  necessary 
information  should  be 
placed  on  each  paper. 
This  information 
should  be  the  pupil's 
name,  age,  grade,  sex, 
and  school.  This 
should  be  on  every 
paper.  When  the 
test  is  over  the  papers 
should  be  immedi- 
ately collected. 


Logical  Memory 

Object.  The  pur- 
pose of  this  test  is  to 
determine  the  pupil's 
facility  in  remember- 
ing and  reproducing 
ideas.  A  pupil's 
standing  in  the  test 
may  serve  as  an  in- 
dication of  his  abil- 
ity to  remember  the 


Age 

8 

9 

I 
10 

11 

12 

29 

29 

Qirls 
.6         31 

Norms 
.9         34 

.2         34 

.4      34.4 

34 

1 

'" " 



33 

1 
1 
1 
I 

32 

1 
1 
1 
1 

31 

1 

30 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

1 

ft 

29 

4 
• 

1 
1          1 

28 

27 

/ 

26. 

/ 

.6         27 

Boys 
.5         29 

Norms 

.9          31 

.7         32 

6      32.6 

Figure  VII  —  Logical  Memory 
"Willie  Jones" 


subject  matter  of  the  school  studies 

Method.  The  procedure  in  this  test  is  for  the 
teacher  to  read  slowly  and  distinctly  the  story  to  be 
reproduced.  Immediately  after  the  reading  the  pupils 
are  to  write  down  all  of  the  story  that  they  can  recall. 


Individual  Differences  185 

They  must  not  begin  to  write  till  after  the  reading. 
Ten  minutes  should  be  allowed  for  the  reproduction. 
This  is  ample  time,  and  each  pupil  should  be  told  to 
use  the  whole  time  in  working  on  his  reproduction. 
At  the  end  of  ten  minutes,  collect  the  papers.  Care 
should  be  taken  to  see  that  each  pupil  does  his  own 
work,  that  there  is  no  copying.  Before  reading  the 
story,  the  teacher  should  give  the  following  instruc- 
tions : 

I  shall  read  to  you  a  story  entitled  "Willie  Jones  and  His  Dog" 
(or  "A  Farmer's  Son,"  or  "  A  Costly  Temper,"  as  the  case  may  be). 
After  I  have  read  the  story  you  are  to  write  down  all  you  can  re- 
member of  it.  You  are  not  to  use  the  exact  words  that  I  read 
unless  you  wish.  You  are  to  use  your  own  words.  Try  to  recall 
as  much  as  possible  and  write  all  you  recall.  Try  to  get  all  the 
details,  not  merely  the  main  facts. 

Material.  For  grades  three,  four,  and  five,  use 
"Willie  Jones  and  His  Dog";  for  grades  six,  seven, 
and  eight,  use  "  A  Farmer's  Son  " ;  for  the  high  school, 
use  "  A  Costly  Temper."  The  norms  for  the  latter  are 
based  on  eighth  grade  and  high  school  pupils. 

WILLIE  JONES  AND  HIS  DOG 

Willie  |  Jones  |  was  a  little  |  boy  |  only  |  five  years 
old.  |  He  had  a  dog  |  whose  name  was  Buster.  |  Bus- 
ter was  a  large  |  dog  |  with  long,  |  black,  |  curly  |  hair.  | 
His  fore  |  feet  |  and  the  tip  |  of  his  tail  |  were  white.  | 
One  day  |  Willie's  mother  |  sent  him  I  to  the  store  | 
which  was  only  |  a  short  |  distance  away.  |  Buster 
went  with  him,  |  following  behind.  |  As  Buster  was 
turning  |  at  the  corner,  |  a  car  |  struck  him  |  and 
broke  |  one  |  hind  [  leg  |  and  hurt  |  one  |  eye.  |  Willie  was 
|  very  |  sorry  |  and     cried  |  a     long  |  time.  |       Willie's 


186        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

father  |  came  |  and  carried  |  the  poor  |  dog  |  home. 
The  broken  leg  |  got  well  |  in  five  |  weeks  |  but  the  eye 
that  was  hurt  I  became  blind.  I 


A  FARMER'S  SON 

Will  |  was  a  farmer's  |  son  |  who  attended  school  |  in 
town.  |  His  clothes  |  were  poor  and  his  boots  |  often 
smelled  |  of  the  farmyard  |  although  he  took  great  |  care 
of  them.  |  Since  Will  had  not  gone  to  school  |  as  much  | 
as  his  classmates,  |  he  was  often  |  at  a  disadvantage,  j 
although  his  mind  |  was  as  good  |  as  theirs,  —  |  in  fact, 
he  was  brighter  |  than  most  [  of  them.  |  James,  [  the 
wit  |  of  the  class,  |  never  lost  an  opportunity  |  to  ridi- 
cule |  Will's  mistakes,  |  his  bright  |  red  |  hair,  [  and  his 
patched  |  clothes.  |  Will  |  took  the  ridicule  |  in  good 
part  |  and  never  |  lost  his  temper.  |  One  Saturday  |  as 
Will  |  was  driving  |  his  cows  |  to  pasture,  |  he  met 
James  |  teasing  |  a  young  |  child,  |  a  cripple.  |  Will's  | 
indignation  |  was  aroused  |  by  the  sight.  |  He  asked  |  the 
bully  |  to  stop,  [  but  when  he  would  not,  |  Will  pounced  | 
upon  him  |  and  gave  him  |  a  good  |  beating,  |  and  he 
would  not  [  let  James  go  |  until  he  promised  |  not  to 
tease  |  the  crippled  [  child  |  again.  | 

A  COSTLY  TEMPER 

A  man  |  named  John  |  Murdock  |  had  a  servant  |  who 
worried  him  |  much  by  his  stupidity.  |  One  day  |  when 
this  servant  was  more  [  stupid  |  than  usual,  |  the  angry  | 
master  |  of  the  house  |  threw  a  book  |  at  his  head,  j 
The  servant  |  ducked  |  and  the  book  flew  |  out  of  the 
window.  | 

"  Now  go  |  and  pick  that  book  up !  "  |  ordered  the 


Individual  Differences  187 


master.  |  The  servant  |  started  |  to  obey,  |  but  a 
passerby  |  had  saved  him  |  the  trouble,  |  and  had  walked 
off  |  with  the  book.  |  The  scientist  |  thereupon  |  began 
to  wonder  |  what  book  |  he  had  thrown  away,  |  and  to 
his  horror,  |  discovered  |  that  it  was  a  quaint  |  and  rare  | 
little  |  volume  |  of  poems,  |  which  he  had  purchased  | 
in  London  |  for  fifty  |  dollars.  | 

But  his  troubles  |  were  not  over.  |  The  weeks  went 
by  |  and  the  man  had  almost  |  forgotten  his  loss,  |  when, 
strolling  |  into  a  secondhand  |  bookshop,  |  he  saw,  |  to 
his  great  delight,  |  a  copy  of  the  book  |  he  had  lost.  | 
He  asked  the  price.  | 

"  Well,"  |  said  the  dealer,  |  reflectively,  |  "  I  guess  we 
can  let  you  have  it  |  for  forty  |  dollars.  |  It  is  a  very  | 
rare  book,  |  and  I  am  sure  |  that  I  could  get  seventy- 
five  |  dollars  for  it  |  by  holding  on  a  while."  | 

The  man  of  science  |  pulled  out  his  purse  |  and  pro- 
duced the  money,  |  delighted  at  the  opportunity  of  re- 
placing |  his  lost  |  treasure.  |  When  he  reached  home,  | 
a  card  |  dropped  out  |  of  the  leaves.  |  The  card  was 
his  own,  |  and  further  |  examination  |  showed  that  he 
had  bought  back  |  his  own  property.  | 

"  Forty  dollars'  |  worth  of  temper,"  |  exclaimed  the 
man.  |  "I  think  I  shall  mend  my  ways."  |  His  disposi- 
tion |  afterward  |  became  so  |  good  |  that  |  the  servant 
became  worried,  |  thinking  the  man  |  must  be  ill.  | 

The  Results.  The  material  for  the  test  is  divided 
into  units  as  indicated  by  the  vertical  lines.  The 
pupil's  written  reproduction  should  be  compared  unit 
by  unit  with  the  story  as  printed,  and  given  one  credit  for 
each  unit  adequately  reproduced.  The  norms  for  the 
three  tests  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  Figures  VII, 
VIII,  and  IX.     In  these  and  all  the  graphs  which  follow, 


188 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


the  actual  ages  are  shown  in  the  first  horizontal  column. 
The  norms  for  girls  appear  in  the  second  horizontal 
column,  the  norms  for  boys  in  the  column  at  the 

bottom.  By  the  norm 
for  an  age  is  meant 
the  average  perform- 
ance of  all  the  pupils 
of  that  age  examined. 
Age  ten  applies  to 
those  pupils  who  have 
passed  their  tenth 
birthday  and  have 
not  reached  their 
eleventh  birthday, 
and  the  other  ages 
are  to  be  similarly 
interpreted.  The 
vertical  lines  in  the 
graphs  indicate  birth- 
days and  the  scores 
written  on  these  lines 
indicate  ability  at 
these  exact  ages. 
The  column  marked 
ten,  for  example,  in- 
cludes all  the  children 
that  are  over  ten  and 
not  yet  eleven.  The  graphs  show  the  development 
from  age  to  age.  In  general,  it  will  be  noticed,  there 
is  an  improvement  of  memory  with  age,  but  in  the  high 
school,  in  the  "  Costly  Temper  "  test,  there  is  a  decline. 
This  may  not  indicate  a  real  decline  in  ability  to  re- 
member ideas,  but  a  change  in  attitude.  The  high 
school  pupil  probably  acquires  a  habit  of  remembering 


Age 

11 

12 

n 

13 

14 

15 

33 

33 

Girls 
.5         34 

Norms 
.5        35 

.1          35 

.6     38.5 

38 

I 
I 

37 

1 
1 
1 
1 

36 

1 
1 
1 
1          / 

35 

-* 

-•* 

1         / 

1        / 

34 

4 
• 
• 

> 

s           > 

Bous 

33 

^'' 

32 

32 

.3        33 

Boys 
.2        33 

Norms 
.9         34 

.8          35 

36.3 

Figure  VIII  —  Logical  Memory  — 
"A  Farmer's  Son" 


Individual  Differences 


189 


only  significant  facts.  His  memory  is  selective,  while 
in  the  earlier  ages,  the  memory  may  be  more  parrot- 
like, one  idea  being  reproduced  with  about  as  much 
fidelity  as  another.  This  statement  is  made  not  as  a 
fact,  but  as  a  probable  explanation. 

Rote  Memory 

Object.     The  object  of  the  rote  memory  tests  is  to 
determine  the  pupil's  memory  span  for  unrelated  im- 


Age 

12 

13 

14 

m 

15 

16 

17 

18 

49 

.1          40 

.1          40 

.6         50 

Q'irts 
48 

Norms 

.7          47 

.6          47 

.6 

50 

49 

^^* 

48 

> 

> 

\ 
\ 
\ 

N. 

\ 

47 

^- 

\ 

46 

45 

50 

.6          50 

.6         48 

.0          47 

Boys 

.6         47 

Norms 
.4        45 

.1          45 

.1 

Figure  IX  — Logical  Memory  —  "A  Costly  Temper1 


pressions  —  words  that  have  no  logical  relations  with 
one  another.  Much  school  work  makes  demands  upon 
this  ability.     Therefore,  the  tests  are  of  importance. 


190 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


Method.  There  are  two  lists  of  words,  concrete  and 
abstract,  with  six  groups  in  each  list.  The  list  of  con- 
crete words  should  be  given  first,  then  the  abstract. 
The  procedure  is  to  pronounce  the  first  group,  cat,  tree, 
coat,  and  then  pause  for  the  pupils  to  write  these  three 
words.     Then  pronounce  the  next  group,  mule,  bird, 


Age 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

22 

.2       22 

1       23 

.6      24 

.8      26 

26 

Qirls 
.8      21 

Norms 
.3      21 

.3      28 

.1      28 

.1       28 

.7 

28 

S 

' 

27 

* 

s 

26 

.'■ 

25 

/■ 
t 
/  / 

t/ 

^BoWs 

24 

* 
// 
// 

23 

4 

// 

22 

4 

22 

.2       22 

f!       23 

.5      24 

.7      25 

.6       26 

Boys 
26 

Norms 
.3      26 

.2      26 

1 

.4       26 

.8      21 

.4 

Figure  X  —  Concrete  Rote  Memory 


cart,  glass,  and  pause  for  the  reproduction,  and  so  on 
through  the  list. 

Give  the  following  instructions : 

We  wish  to  see  how  well  you  can  remember  words.  I  shall 
pronounce  first  a  group  of  three  words.  After  I  have  pronounced 
them,  you  are  to  write  them  down.  I  shall  then  pronounce  a 
group  of  four  words,  then  one  of  five  words,  and  so  continue  with 
a  longer  group  each  time.     You  must  pay  very  close  attention 


Individual  Differences 


191 


for  I  shall  pronounce  a  group  but  once.     You  are  not  required  to 
write  the  words  in  their  order,  but  just  as  you  recall  them. 


Material.     The  words  for 
following  lists : 

Concrete 

1.  cat,  tree,  coat 

2.  mule,  bird,  cart,  glass 

3.  star,  horse,  dress,  fence,  man 

4.  fish,  sun,  head,  door,  shoe, 

block 

5.  train,    mill,   box,    desk,    oil, 

pup,  bill 

6.  floor,  car,  pipe,  bridge,  hand, 

dirt,  cow,  crank 


the  test  are  given  in  the 

Abstract 

1.  good,  black,  fast 

2.  clean,  tall,  round,  hot 

3.  long,  wet,  fierce,  white,  cold 

4.  deep,  soft,  quick,  dark,  great, 
dead 

5.  sad,    strong,    hard,    bright, 
fine,  glad,  plain 

6.  sharp,  late,  sour,  wide,  rough, 
thick,  red,  tight 


Age 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

20 

.2       21 

.4       21 

.9      23 

24 

.7      25 

Qirls 
6      26 

Norms 
.1       26 

26 

.8      27 

.5      28 

27 

* 
* 

^ 

26 

.' 

* 
• 

s 

r 

25 

** 

24 

I 
1 
/ 

•' 

23 

I 

1      > 
1     / 
/  / 

-6^S 

22 

-    J 
/> 

// 

21 

4 
/ 

..''' 

20 

t 
t 
/ 

• 

10 

.6       7.9 

.7       21 

.7       22 

.8      23 

.7      24 

Boys 
.1       24 

Norms 
.5     25 

25 

.5      26 

.4      27 

•< 

Figure  XI  — Abstract  Rote  Memory 


192        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Results.  The  papers  are  graded  by  determining  the 
number  of  concrete  words  and  the  number  of  abstract 
words  that  are  reproduced.  No  account  is  taken  of 
whether  the  words  are  in  the  right  position  or  not.  A 
perfect  score  in  each  test  would  therefore  be  thirty- 
three.     The  norms  are  shown  in  Figures  X  and  XI. 

The  Substitution  Test 

Object.  This  test  determines  one's  ability  to  build 
up  new  associations.  It  is  a  test  of  quickness  of 
learning. 

Method.  The  substitution  test-sheets  are  distrib- 
uted to  the  pupils  and  turned  face  down  on  the  desks. 
The  teacher  gives  the  following  instructions : 

We  wish  to  see  how  fast  you  can  learn.  At  the  top  of  the  sheet 
which  has  been  distributed  to  you  there  is  a  key.  In  nine  circles 
are  written  the  nine  digits  and  for  each  digit  there  is  written  a 
letter  which  is  to  be  used  instead  of  the  digit.  Below  the  key  are 
two  columns  of  numbers;  each  number  contains  five  digits.  In 
the  five  squares  which  follow  the  number  you  are  to  write  the  let- 
ters which  correspond  to  the  digits.  Work  as  fast  as  you  can  and 
fill  as  many  of  the  squares  as  you  can  without  making  mistakes. 
When  I  say  "stop,"  quit  work  instantly  and  turn  the  paper  over. 

Before  beginning  the  test  the  teacher  should  explain 
on  the  blackboard  the  exact  nature  of  the  test.  This 
can  be  done  by  using  other  letters  instead  of  those 
used  in  the  key.  Make  sure  that  the  pupils  under- 
stand what  they  are  to  do.  Allow  eight  minutes  in 
grades  three,  four,  and  five,  and  five  minutes  above 
the  fifth  grade. 

Material.  For  material,  use  the  substitution  test- 
sheets.  This  and  the  other  test  material  can  be  ob- 
tained from  the  University  of  Missouri,  Extension 
Division. 


Individual  Differences 


193 


Results.  In  grading  the  work,  count  each  square 
correctly  filled  in  as  one  point,  and  reduce  the  score  to 
speed  per  minute  by  dividing  by  eight  in  grades  three, 
four,  and  five,  and  by  five  in  the  grades  above. 

The  norms  are  shown  in  Figure  XII. 


Age 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

13 

.23      14 

.71       77 

.27      19 

.69     2  J 

Qirls 
.49     22 

Norms 
.98     25 

.1        27 

.2       28 

.4        28 

.5 

27.5 

j** 

25. 

4 
• 
• 

• 

• 

<** 

22.5 

* 

20. 

S 

y 

/ 

17.5 

/ 
s 
S 
/ 

* 

15. 

/ 
* 

* 

• 
• 

72.5 

10. 

10 

.93       12 

.7        14 

.5         16 

.55      17 

Boys 
.7       18 

Norms 
.25     22 

.;      23 

.78     25 

.08      25 

.73 

Figure  XII  —  Substitution  Test 

Free  Association 

Object.  This  test  determines  the  speed  of  the  free 
flow  of  ideas.  The  result  of  the  test  is  a  criterion  of  the 
quickness  of  the  flow  of  ideas  when  no  restriction  or 
limitation  is  put  on  this  flow. 

Method.     The  procedure  in  this  test  is  to  give  the 


194        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


pupils  a  word,  and  tell  them  to  write  this  word  down 
and  all  the  other  words  that  come  into  their  minds. 
Make  it  clear  to  them  that  they  are  to  write  whatever 
word  comes  to  mind,  whether  it  has  any  relation  to  the 


Age   7 


57 
52 
47 
42 
37 
32 
27 
22 


10 


77 


72 


13        14        15        16 


17 


18 


17 


12 


FREE 

ASSOC 

IA  TION 

22  24. 

2     25. 

6      20 

35 

40. 

3      43 

Qirls 

1     48. 

6     49. 

4     48. 

5     48. 

2 

46. 

„. 

•«\s. 

• 

* 

•'' 

^ 

, 

< 

y 

,•**' 

' 

16    19. 

8    23. 

3     26. 

9     30. 

8     34. 

7     33 

Boys 

9     44. 

6     49. 

8     48. 

1      48 

39. 

Figure  XIII  —  Free  Association  Test 


word  that  is  given  them  or  not.     Start  them  with  the 
word  "  cloud."     Give  the  following  instructions : 

I  wish  to  see  how  many  words  you  can  think  of  and  write 
down  in  three  minutes.  I  shall  name  a  word,  you  may  write  it 
down  and  then  all  the  other  words  that  come  into  your  minds. 
Do  not  write  sentences,  merely  the  words  that  come  into  your 
minds.     Work  as  fast  as  you  can. 

Results.  Score  the  work  by  counting  the  number 
of  words  that  have  been  written.  The  norms  are 
shown  in  Figure  XIII. 


Individual  Differences 


195 


Opposites 

Object.  This  is  a  test  of  controlled  association.  It 
tests  one  aspect  of  the  association  of  ideas.  All  think- 
ing is  a  matter  of  association  of  ideas.  Reasoning  is 
controlled  association.  The  test  may  therefore  be 
taken  as  a  measure  of  speed  in  reasoning. 


Age 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

ym 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

9 

Qirls 
.2       9 

Norms 
.7       10 

List  I 

.5       11 

.6       12 

.6 

8 

.6        9 

8       11 

.1       12 

Qirls 
.5      13 

Norms 
.9      14 

List  n 
.8      15 

.6      16 

6 

18 

16 

„r* 

14 

** 

* 

12 

s 

* 

10 

^ 

*              ^ 

4 

* 

8 

r  ^^~ 

8 

Boys 
.2        8 

Norms 
.5        9 

List  I 
.6      10 

.7       10 

.7 

8 

.2        9 

.4       10 

.2       11 

Boys 
12 

Norms 
.2      13 

List  U 
.6       14 

14 

.2 

Figure  XIV  —  Opposites  Test  — Lists  I  and  II 


Method.  Distribute  the  lists  of  opposites  to  the 
pupils  and  turn  them  face  down  on  the  desks.  Use 
List  One  in  grades  three,  four,  and  five,  and  List  Two 
in  grades  above.  Allow  two  minutes  in  grades  three, 
four,  and  five  and  one  minute  in  grades  above.  Give 
the  following  instructions : 


196 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


On  the  sheets  that  have  been  distributed  to  you  are  fifty  words. 
After  each  word  you  are  to  write  a  word  that  has  the  opposite 
meaning.  For  example,  if  one  word  were  "far,"  you  could  write 
"near."  Work  as  fast  as  you  can,  and  when  I  say  "stop"  quit 
work  instantly  and  turn  your  paper  over. 

Results.  The  score  is  the  number  of  opposites  cor- 
rectly written.     The  norms  are  shown  in  Figure  XIV. 


OPPOSITES  — LIST   NO.   1 


1.  good 

18. 

up 

35. 

before 

2.   big 

19. 

thick 

36. 

winter 

3.   rich 

20. 

quick 

37. 

ripe 

4.   out 

21. 

pretty 

38. 

night 

5.   sick 

22. 

heavy 

39. 

open 

6.   hot 

23. 

late 

40. 

first 

7.   long 

24. 

wrong 

41. 

over 

8.   wet 

25. 

smooth 

42. 

love 

9.   yes 

26. 

strong 

43. 

come 

10.    high 

27. 

dark 

44. 

east 

11.   hard 

28. 

dead 

45. 

top 

12.   sweet 

29. 

wide 

46. 

wise 

13.    clean 

30. 

empty 

47. 

front 

14.   sharp 

31. 

above 

48. 

girl 

15.   fast 

32. 

north 

49. 

sad 

16.   black 

33. 

laugh 

50. 

fat 

17.   old 

34. 
OPPOSITES 

man 
-LIST  NO.  2 

1.   strong 

11. 

dark 

21. 

black 

2.    deep 

12. 

rough 

22. 

good 

3.   lazy 

13. 

pretty 

23. 

fast 

4.   seldom 

14. 

high 

24. 

clean 

5.   thin 

15. 

foolish 

25. 

tall 

6.   soft 

16. 

present 

26. 

hot 

7.   many 

17. 

glad 

27. 

long 

8.   valuable 

18. 

strange 

28. 

wet 

9.   gloomy 

19. 

wrong 

29. 

fierce 

10.  rude 

20. 

quickly 

30. 

great 

Individual  Differences 


197 


31.  dead 

32.  cloudy 

33.  hard 

34.  bright 

35.  fine 

36.  plain 

37.  sharp 


38.  late 

39.  sour 

40.  wide 

41.  drunk 

42.  tight 

43.  empty 

44.  sick 


45.  friend 

46.  above 

47.  loud 

48.  war 

49.  in 

50.  yes 


The  Word-Building  Test 

Object.  This  is  a  test  of  a  certain  type  of  inventive- 
ness, namely  linguistic  invention.  Specifically,  it  tests 
the  pupil's  ability  to  construct  words  using  certain  pre- 
scribed letters. 


Age 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

LX 
13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

7 

.6         8 

.4        9 

.3       10 

.5       12 

.1       13 

Girls 
.5      14 

Norms 
.3      14 

.9      14 

.7       75 

.5       15 

.9 

15 

/ 
• 

.-"' 

14 

s 

<• 

*•«■».. 

13 

/ 
/ 

• 

• 
• 

-'jjoij5 

12 

/ 
/ 

/ 

11 

/ 
1 

1  / 
1  / 

10 

/ 

/  > 

i  / 
/  / 

<  / 

9 

s 

/   / 
/   / 
/    / 

8 

s 

s 
s 

7 

.5         7 

.9         8 

.5       10 

.2       11 

.6      12 

Boys 
.2        13 

Norms 
13 

.3       13 

.6       13 

.9      14, 

.5 

Figure  XV  —  Word-Building  Test 


198        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Method.  The  pupils  are  given  the  letters,  a,  e,  o,  m, 
n,  r,  and  told  to  make  as  many  words  as  possible  using 
only  these  letters.     Give  the  following  instructions: 

I  wish  to  see  how  many  words  you  can  make  in  five  minutes, 
using  only  the  letters  which  I  give  you.  The  words  must  be  real 
English  words.  You  must  use  only  the  letters  which  I  give  you 
and  must  not  use  the  same  letter  more  than  once  in  the  same  word. 
You  do  not,  of  course,  have  to  use  all  the  letters  in  the  same  word. 
A  word  may  contain  one  or  more  letters  up  to  six. 

Material.  The  pupils  need  only  sheets  of  blank 
paper. 

Results.  The  score  is  the  number  of  words  that  do 
not  violate  the  rules  of  the  test  as  given  in  the  instruc- 
tions.    The  norms  are  shown  in  Figure  XV. 

The  Completion  Test 

Object.  This  is,  to  some  extent,  a  test  of  reasoning 
capacity.  Of  course,  it  is  only  one  particular  aspect 
of  reasoning.  The  pupil  is  given  a  story  that  has  cer- 
tain words  omitted.  He  must  read  the  story,  see  what 
it  is  trying  to  say,  and  determine  what  words,  put  into 
the  blanks,  will  make  the  correct  sense.  The  meaning 
of  the  word  written  in  a  particular  blank  must  not 
only  make  the  sentence  read  sensibly  but  must  fit  into 
the  story  as  a  whole.  Filling  in  the  blanks  in  this  way 
demands  considerable  thought. 

Method.  Distribute  the  test-sheets  and  turn  them 
face  down  on  the  desks.  Allow  ten  minutes  in  all  the 
tests.     Give  the  following  instructions : 

On  the  sheets  which  have  been  distributed  is  printed  a  story 
which  has  certain  words  omitted.  You  are  to  put  in  the  blanks 
the  words  that  are  omitted.  The  words  which  you  write  in  must 
give  the  proper  meaning  so  that  the  story  reads  correctly.     Each. 


Individual  Differences 


199 


Age 

8 

9 

X 
10 

11 

12 

12 

.1          13 

Girls 
.2         14 

Norms 
.3         14 

.8        14 

8 

U 

4 
/ 

.-"" 

13 

/ 

tit' 
/ 

12 

• 
/ 
/ 

• 

11 

/^ 

10 

10 

.9         11 

Boys 
.2        12 

Norms 
.7         13 

.2         13 

.4 

word  filled  in  must  not 
only  give  the  proper 
meaning  to  the  sentence 
but  to  the  story  as  a 
whole. 

Material.  Use  the 
completion  test- 
sheets,  "  Joe  and  the 
Fourth  of  July,"  for 
grades  three,  four,  and 
five;  "The  Trout" 
for  grades,  six,  seven, 
and  eight ;  and  "  Dr. 
Goldsmith's  Medi- 
cine "  for  the  high 
school. 

Results.  In  scor- 
ing the  papers,  allow 
one  credit  for  each 
blank  correctly  filled. 
The  norms  are  shown  in  Figures  XVI,  XVII,  and 
XVIII.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  boys  excel  in  the 
"  Trout  "  story.  This  is  doubtless  because  the  story 
is  better  suited  to  them  on  the  ground  of  their  expe- 
rience and  interest. 

JOE  AND  THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY 

Joe  ran x  errands  for  his  mother  and  took  care  of  the 
baby  until  by  the  Fourth  of  July  his  penny  grew  to 
be  a  dime.  The  day  before  the  Fourth,  he  went  down 
town  all  by  himself  to  get  his  fire  works.  There  were 
so  many  kinds  he  hardly  knew  which  to  buy.  The  clerk 
knew  that  it  takes  a  long  time  to  decide,  for  he  had 

i  The  italicized  words  and  letters  are  left  blank  in  the  test  sheets. 


Figure  XVI  —  Completion  Test  — 
"Joe  and  the  Fourth  of  July" 


200 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


been  a  boy  himself  not  very  long  ago.  So  he  helped 
Joe  to  select  the  very  best  kinds.  "  When  are  you 
going  to  fire  them  off?  "  asked  the  clerk.     "  I  will  fire 

them  very  early  to- 
morrow," said  the 
boy.  So  that  night 
Joe  set  the  alarm 
clock,  and  the  next 
morning  got  up  early 
to  fire  his  firecrackers. 


THE  TROUT 

The  trout  is  a  fine 
fish.  Once  a  big 
trout  lived  in  a  pool 
close  by  a  spring.  He 
used  to  stay  under 
the  bank  with  only 
his  head  showing. 
His  wide-open  eyes 
shone  like  jewels.  I 
tried  to  catch  him.  I 
would  creep  up  to  the 
edge  of  the  pool  where 
I  could  see  his  bright  eyes  looking  up. 

I  caught  a  grasshopper  and  threw  it  over  to  him. 
Then  there  was  a  splash  in  the  water  and  the  grass- 
hopper was  gone.  I  did  this  two  or  three  times.  Each 
time  I  saw  the  rush  and  splash  and  saw  the  bait  had 
been  taken. 

So  I  put  the  same  bait  on  my  hook  and  threw  it  over 
into  the  water.  But  all  was  silent.  The  fish  was  an 
old  one  and  had  grown  very  wise.     I  did  this  day  after 


Age 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

A          15 

Girls 
.5          16 

Norms 
.5        17 

.9         19 

19.7 

20 

19 

* 
* 

,' 

s 

18 

/ 

17 

/          / 
/ 
/ 
/ 

f 

' 

16 

/ 
/ 

/ 

15 

/ 
s 

/ 

16 

A          16 

Boys 
.8        17 

Norms 
.6         19 

20 

.3     20.6 

Figure  XVII  — Completion  Test- 
"The  Trout" 


Individual  Differences  201 

day  with  the  same  luck.     The  trout  knew  there  was  a 
hook  hidden  in  the  bait. 


DOCTOR  GOLDSMITH'S  MEDICINE 

This  is  a  story  of  good  medicine.  Most  medicine  is 
bad  to  take,  but  this  was  so  good  that  the  sick  man 
wished  for  more. 

One  day  a  poor  woman  'went  to  Doctor  Goldsmith 
and  asked  him  to  go  to  see  her  sick  husband.  "  He 
is  very  sick,"  she  said,  "  and  I  can  not  get  him  to 
eat  anything." 

So  Doctor  Goldsmith  went  to  see  him.  The  doctor 
saw  at  once  that  the  reason  why  the  man  could  not  eat 
was  because  he  was  so  poor  that  he  had  not  been  able  to 
buy  good  food. 

Then  he  said  to  the  woman,  "  Come  to  my  house  this 
evening  and  I  will  give  you  some  medicine  for  your 
husband." 

The  woman  went  in  the  evening  and  the  doctor  gave 
her  a  small  paper  box  tied  up  tight.  "  It  is  very  heavy," 
she  said.  "  May  I  see  what  it  looks  like?  "  "No," 
said  the  doctor,  "  wait  until  you  get  home."  When  she 
got  home,  and  she  and  her  husband  opened  the  box  so 
that  he  could  take  the  first  dose  of  medicine,  —  what 
do  you  think  they  saw?  The  box  was  filled  with  silver 
money.     This  was  the  good  doctor's  medicine. 

Importance  of  Mental  Differences.  (1)  In  school 
work.  One  of  the  important  results  that  come  from  a 
knowledge  of  the  mental  differences  in  children  is  that 
we  are  able  to  classify  them  better.  When  a  child 
enters  school  he  should  be  allowed  to  proceed  through 
the  course  as  fast  as  his  development  warrants.     Some 


202 


The  Science  of  Human  Nature 


children  can  do  an  eight-year  course  in  six  years ;  others 
require  ten  years;  still  others  can  never  do  it.  The 
great  majority,  of  course,  can  do  it  in  eight  years. 


Age 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16- 

17 

18 

41 

.1         41 

6          42 

.5         42 

Qirla 
.7         42 

Norms 
.9         43 

.5         44 

.6 

44 

/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 

43 

s 

42 

4 
/ 

f 

Girls- 

—  ""■" 

s 

41 

^"' 

• 

40 

/ 

39 

/ 

33 

S$& 

39 

38 

.7        38 

.6         38 

Boys 

.4         38 

Norms 
\.9         39 

.9         41 

Figure  XVIII  —  Completion  Test  —  "  Dr.  Goldsmith's 

Medicine" 

Norms  for  adults,  as  obtained  from  university  students,  are: 


Test  Men 

Substitution  Test 29.1 

Rote  Memory,  Concrete 28.5 

Rote  Memory,  Abstract 28.4 

Free  Association 51.5 

Completion,  Dr.  Goldsmith's  Medicine 48.1 

Word  Building 20.5 

Logical  Memory,  Costly  Temper 64.0 


Women 
32.2 
28.6 
27.9 
49.3 
49.0 
20.1 
69.6 


Individual  Differences 


203 


It  may  be  thought  that  a  child's  success  in  school 
branches  is  a  sufficient  measure  of  his  ability  and  that 
no  special  mental  measurements  are  needed.  This  is 
a  mistake.  Many  factors  contribute  to  success  in 
school  work.    Ability  is  only  one  of  these  factors,  and 


7         a         t 

Figure  XIX 


T 
11 


T 
13 


~r 
17 


10         11  12         13         14         15         16         17         18 

Frequency  Surfaces  —  Comparing  Fourth 
Grade  with  High  School 

The  numbers  along  the  base  represent  mental  age ;  those  at  the 
left,  the  number  of  pupils  of  the  respective  ages. 

should  be  specially  and  independently  determined  by 
suitable  tests.  Children  may  fail  in  school  branches 
because  of  being  poorly  started  or  started  at  the  wrong 
time,  because  of  poor  teaching,  sickness,  moving  from 
one  school  to  another,  etc.  On  the  other  hand,  children 
of  poor  ability  may  succeed  at  school  because  of  much 
help  at  home.    Therefore  special  mental  tests  will  help 


204        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

in  determining  to  what  extent  original  mental  ability  is 
a  factor  in  the  success  or  failure  of  the  different  pupils. 
As  far  as  possible,  the  children  of  the  same  grade 
should  have  about  the  same  ability ;  but  such  is  seldom 
the  case.  In  a  recent  psychological  study  of  a  school 
system,  the  author  found  wide  differences  in  ability  in 
the  same  grade.  The  distribution  of  abilities  found  in 
the  fourth  grade  and  in  the  high  school  are  shown  in 
Figure  XIX.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  fourth  grade 
pupils  are  found  with  ability  equal  to  that  of  some  in 
the  high  school.  Of  course  to  some  extent  such  a  con- 
dition is  unavoidable,  for  a  pupil  must  establish  certain 
habits  and  acquire  certain  knowledge  before  passing 
from  one  grade  to  another.  However,  much  of  the 
wide  variation  in  ability  now  found  in  the  same  grade 
of  a  school  could  be  avoided  if  the  teacher  had  accu- 
rate knowledge  of  the  pupils'  abilities.  When  a  teacher 
learns  that  a  child  who  is  doing  poorly  in  school  really 
has  ability,  she  is  often  able  to  get  from  that  pupil  the 
work  of  which  he  is  capable.  It  has  been  demonstrated 
by  experience  that  accurate  measures  of  children's  abili- 
ties are  a  great  help  in  gradation  and  classification. 

A  knowledge  of  mental  differences  is  also  an  aid  in 
the  actual  teaching  of  the  children.  The  instance 
mentioned  at  the  close  of  the  last  paragraph  is  an  ex- 
ample. A  knowledge  of  the  differences  among  the 
mental  functions  of  the  same  pupil  is  especially  helpful. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  different  mental  func- 
tions in  the  same  pupil  are  sometimes  unequally  de- 
veloped. Sometimes  considerable  differences  exist  in 
the  same  pupil  with  respect  to  learning  capacity,  the 
different  aspects  of  memory,  association,  imagination, 
and  attention.  When  a  teacher  knows  of  these  differ- 
ences, she  can  better  direct  the  work  of  the  pupils. 


Individual  Differences  205 

For  example,  if  a  pupil  have  a  very  poor  memory, 
the  teacher  can  help  him  by  aiding  him  to  secure  the 
advantage  that  comes  from  close  and  concentrated 
attention,  frequent  repetitions,  logical  organization, 
etc.  On  the  other  hand,  she  can  help  the  brilliant  stu- 
dent by  preventing  him  from  being  satisfied  with  hastily 
secured,  superficial  knowledge,  and  by  encouraging  him 
to  make  proper  use  of  his  unusual  powers  in  going 
deeper  and  more  extensively  into  the  school  subjects 
than  is  possible  for  the  ordinary  student.  In  many 
ways  a  teacher  can  be  helpful  to  her  pupils  if  she  has 
an  accurate  knowledge  of  their  mental  abilities. 

(2)  In  life  occupations.  Extreme  variations  in  ability 
should  certainly  be  considered  in  choosing  one's  life 
work.  Only  persons  of  the  highest  ability  should  go 
into  science,  law,  medicine,  or  teaching.  Many  occu- 
pations demand  special  kinds  of  ability,  special  types 
of  reaction,  of  attention,  imagination,  etc.  For  ex- 
ample, the  operation  of  a  telephone  exchange  demands 
a  person  of  quick  and  steady  reaction.  The  work  of  a 
motorman  on  a  street  car  demands  a  person  having  the 
broad  type  of  attention,  the  type  of  attention  that  en- 
ables one  to  keep  in  mind  many  details  at  the  same 
time.  Scientific  work  demands  the  type  of  concen- 
trated attention.  As  far  as  it  is  possible,  occupations 
demanding  special  types  of  ability  should  be  filled  by 
people  possessing  these  abilities.  It  is  best  for  all  con- 
cerned if  each  person  is  doing  what  he  can  do  best. 
It  is  true  that  many  occupations  do  not  call  for  special 
types  of  ability.  And  therefore,  as  far  as  ability  is 
concerned,  a  person  could  do  as  well  in  one  of  these 
occupations  as  in  another.  The  time  will  sometime 
come  when  we  shall  know  the  special  abilities  demanded 
by  the  different  occupations  and  professions,  and  by 


206         The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

suitable  tests  shall  be  able  to  determine  what  people 
possess  the  required  qualifications. 

The  schools  should  always  be  on  the  lookout  for  un- 
usual ability.  Children  that  are  far  superior  to  others 
of  the  same  age  should  be  allowed  to  advance  as  fast 
as  their  superior  ability  makes  possible,  and  should 
be  held  up  to  a  high  order  of  work.  Such  superior 
people  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  in  the  same  classes, 
so  that  they  can  the  more  easily  be  given  the  kind  and 
amount  of  work  that  they  need.  The  schools  should 
find  the  children  of  unusual  special  ability,  such  as 
ability  in  drawing,  painting,  singing,  playing  musical 
instruments,  mechanical  invention,  etc.  Some  provi- 
sion should  be  made  for  the  proper  development  and 
training  of  these  unusual  abilities.  Society  cannot 
afford  to  lose  any  spark  of  genius  wherever  found. 
Moreover,  the  individual  will  be  happier  if  developed 
and  trained  along  the  line  of  his  special  ability. 

Subnormal  Children.  A  small  percentage  of  children 
are  of  such  low  mentality  that  they  cannot  do  the 
ordinary  school  work.  As  soon  as  such  children  can 
be  picked  out  with  certainty,  they  should  be  taken  out 
of  the  regular  classes  and  put  into  special  classes.  It 
is  a  mistake  to  try  to  get  them  to  do  the  regular  school 
work.  They  cannot  do  it,  and  they  only  waste  the 
teacher's  time  and  usually  give  her  much  trouble. 
Besides,  they  waste  their  own  time;  for  while  they 
cannot  do  the  ordinary  school  work,  they  can  do  other 
things,  perhaps  work  of  a  manual  nature.  The  educa- 
tion of  such  people  should,  therefore,  be  in  the  direc- 
tion of  simple  manual  occupations. 

For  detecting  such  children,  in  addition  to  the  tests 
given  above,  elaborate  tests  for  individual  examination 
have  been  devised.     The  most  widely  used  is  a  series 


Individual  Differences  207 


known  as  the  Binet-Simon  tests.  A  special  group  of 
tests  is  provided  for  the  children  of  each  age.  If  a 
child  can  pass  the  tests  for  his  age,  he  is  considered 
normal.  If  he  can  pass  only  the  tests  three  years  or 
more  below  his  age,  he  is  usually  considered  subnormal. 
But  a  child's  fate  should  not  depend  solely  upon  any 
number  or  any  kind  of  tests.  We  should  always  give 
the  child  a  trial  and  see  what  he  is  able  to  achieve. 
This  trial  should  cover  as  many  months  or  years  as  are 
necessary  to  determine  beyond  doubt  the  child's  mental 
status. 

Summary.  Just  as  we  differ  in  the  various  aspects  of  body,  so 
also  we  differ  in  the  various  aspects  of  mind.  These  differences 
can  be  measured  by  tests.  A  knowledge  of  these  differences 
should  aid  us  in  grading,  classifying,  and  teaching  children, 
as  well  as  in  the  selection  of  occupation  and  professions  for  them. 
Mental  traits  have  some  degree  of  independence;  as  a  result  a 
high  degree  of  one  trait  may  be  found  with  low  degree  of  some 
others. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Many  of  the  tests  and  experiments  already  described  should 
have  shown  many  of  the  individual  differences  of  the  members 
of  the  class.  The  teacher  will  find  in  the  author's  Examination  of 
School  Children  a  series  of  group  tests  with  norms  which  can  be 
used  for  a  further  study  of  individual  differences. 

2.  The  tapping  experiment  described  in  the  first  chapter  can 
now  be  repeated  and  the  results  taken  as  a  measure  of  reaction 
time. 

3.  You  should  now  have  available  the  records  of  all  the  testa 
and  experiments  so  far  given  that  show  individual  differences. 
Make  out  a  table  showing  the  rank  of  each  student  in  the  various 
tests.  Compute  the  average  rank  of  each  student  for  all  the 
tests.  This  average  rank  may  be  taken  as  a  measure  of  the  in- 
telligence of  the  students,  as  far  as  such  can  be  determined  by  the 
tests  used.  Correlate  this  ranking  with  standing  in  the  high  school 
classes.     It  will  give  a  positive  correlation,  not  perfect,  however, 


208        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

Why  not?  If  your  measures  of  intelligence  were  absolutely  cor- 
rect, you  still  would  not  get  a  perfect  correlation  with  high  school 
standing.     Why  not? 

4.  If  you  had  a  correct  measure  of  intelligence  of  100  mature 
people  in  your  city,  selected  at  random,  would  this  measure  give 
you  an  exact  measure  of  their  success  in  life  ?  Give  the  reason  for 
your  answer. 

5.  Of  all  the  tests  and  experiments  previously  described  in  this 
book,  which  gives  the  best  indication  of  success  in  high  school? 

6.  If  the  class  in  psychology  is  a  large  one,  a  graph  should  be 
prepared  showing  the  distribution  of  abilities  in  the  class.  For 
this  purpose,  you  will  have  to  use  the  absolute  measures  instead  of 
ranks.  Find  the  average  for  each  test  used.  Make  these  aver- 
ages all  the  same  by  multiplying  the  low  ones  and  dividing  the 
high  ones.  Then  all  the  grades  of  each  student  can  be  added. 
This  will  give  each  test  the  same  weight  in  the  average.  The  use 
of  a  slide  rule  will  make  this  transference  to  a  new  average  very 
easy.  A  more  accurate  method  for  this  computation  is  de- 
scribed in  the  author's  Examination  of  School  Children,  p.  65. 

The  students  should  make  a  study  of  individual  differences 
and  the  distribution  of  ability  in  some  grade  below  the  high  school. 
The  tests  described  in  this  chapter  can  be  used  for  that  purpose. 

7.  Is  it  a  good  thing  for  high  school  students  to  find  out  how 
they  compare  with  others  in  their  various  mental  functions?  If 
you  have  poor  ability,  is  it  a  good  thing  for  you  to  find  it  out? 
If  the  teacher  and  students  think  best,  the  results  of  all  the  vari- 
ous tests  need  not  be  made  known  except  to  the  persons  con- 
cerned. The  data  can  be  used  in  the  various  computations  with- 
out the  students'  knowing  whose  measures  they  are. 

8.  To  what  extent  is  ability  a  factor  in  life?  You  find  people 
of  only  ordinary  ability  succeeding  and  brilliant  people  failing. 
Why  is  this? 

9.  None  of  the  tests  so  far  used  measures  ideals  or  persever- 
ance and  persistence.  These  are  important  factors  in  life,  and 
there  is  no  very  adequate  measure  for  any  of  them.  The  students 
might  plan  some  experiments  to  test  physical  and  mental  per- 
sistence and  endurance.  The  tapping  experiment,  for  example, 
might  be  continued  for  an  hour  and  the  records  kept  for  each 
minute.  Then  from  these  records  a  graph  could  be  plotted  show- 
ing the  course  of  efficiency  for  the  hour.     Mental  adding  or  mul- 


Individual  Differences  209 


tiplying  might  be  kept  up  continuously  for  several  hours  and  the 
results  studied  as  above. 

10.  We  have  said  that  ideals  and  persistence  are  important 
factors  in  life.     Are  they  inherited  or  acquired? 

11.  Do  you  find  it  to  be  the  rule  or  the  exception  for  a  per- 
son standing  high  in  one  mental  function  to  stand  high  in  the 
others  also? 

12.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  the  chapter. 

REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS    READING 

Munsterberg  :  Psychology,  General  and  Applied.     Chapter  XVI. 
Pyle  :   The  Examination  of  School  Children. 
Pyle  :    The  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology.     Chapter  XVII. 
Titchener:   A  Beginner's  Psychology,  pp.  309-311. 


CHAPTER  X 
APPLIED   PSYCHOLOGY 

The  General  Field.  Psychology  has  now  reached 
that  stage  in  its  development  where  it  can  be  of  use 
to  humanity.  It  can  be  of  use  in  those  fields  which 
demand  a  knowledge  of  human  nature.  As  indicated 
in  the  first  chapter,  these  fields  are  education,  medicine, 
law,  business,  and  industry.  We  may  add  another 
which  has  been  called  "  culture."  We  cannot  say 
that  psychology  is  able  yet  to  be  of  very  great  service 
except  to  education,  law,  and  medicine.  It  has  been 
of  less  service  to  the  field  of  business  and  industry, 
but  in  the  future,  its  contribution  here  will  be  as  great 
as  in  the  other  fields.  While  the  service  of  psychology 
in  the  various  fields  is  not  yet  great,  what  it  will  event- 
ually be  able  to  do  is  very  clear.  It  is  the  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  indicate  briefly,  the  nature  and  possi- 
bilities of  this  psychological  service. 

Education.  Throughout  the  preceding  chapters, 
we  have  emphasized  the  educational  importance  of  the 
facts  discussed.  There  is  little  left  to  say  here  except 
to  summarize  the  main  facts.  Since  education  is  a 
matter  of  making  a  child  over  into  what  he  ought  to 
be,  the  science  of  education  demands  a  knowledge 
of  the  original  nature  of  children.  This  means  that 
one  must  know  the  nature  of  instincts,  their  relations 
to  one  another,  their  order  of  development,  and  the 

210 


Applied  Psychology  211 


possibilities  of  their  being  changed,  modified,  developed, 
suppressed.  It  means  that  one  must  know  the  nature 
of  the  child's  mind  in  all  its  various  functions,  the 
development  and  significance  of  these  functions,  — 
memory,  association,  imagination,  and  attention.  The 
science  especially  demands  that  we  understand  the 
principles  of  habit-formation,  the  laws  of  economical 
learning,  and  the  laws  of  memory. 

This  psychological  knowledge  must  form  the  ground- 
work in  the  education  of  teachers  for  their  profession. 
In  addition  to  this  general  preparation  of  the  teacher, 
psychology  will  render  the  schools  a  great  service 
through  the  psycho-clinicist,  who  will  be  a  psycholog- 
ical expert  working  under  the  superintendents  of  our 
school  systems.  His  duty  will  be  to  supervise  the 
work  of  mental  testing,  the  work  of  diagnosis  for  feeble- 
mindedness and  selection  of  the  subnormal  children,  the 
teaching  of  such  children.  He  will  give  advice  in 
all  cases  which  demand  expert  psychological  knowl- 
edge. 

Medicine.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  department 
of  medicine  which  deals  with  nervous  diseases,  such  as 
insanity,  double  personality,  severe  nervous  shock, 
hallucination,  etc.  This  entire  aspect  of  medicine 
is  wholly  psychological.  But  psychology  can  be  of 
service  to  the  general  practitioner  both  in  the  diag- 
nosis and  treatment  of  disease.  A  thorough  psycholog- 
ical knowledge  of  human  nature  will  assist  a  physician 
in  diagnosis.  Often  the  best  way  to  find  out  what 
ails  a  patient's  body  is  through  the  patient's  mind, 
and  the  doctor  must  know  how  to  get  the  truth  from 
the  patient's  mind  even  in  those  cases  in  which  the 
patient  is  actually  trying  to  conceal  the  truth.  A  pro- 
found practical  knowledge  of  human  nature  is  neces,- 


212        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

sary,  —  a  knowledge  which  can  be  obtained  only  by 
long  and  careful  technical  study  as  well  as  practice  and 
experience. 

Psychology  can  be  of  service  in  the  treatment  of 
disease.  The  physician  must  understand  the  peculiar 
mental  characteristics  of  his  patient  in  order  to  know 
how  to  deal  with  him.  In  some  cases,  hypnotism  is 
a  valuable  aid  in  treatment,  and  in  many  cases,  ordi- 
nary normal  suggestion  can  be  of  considerable  service. 
The  state  of  mind  of  a  sick  person  has  much  to  do  with 
his  recovery.  The  physician  must  know  this  and 
must  know  how  to  induce  the  desired  state  of  mind. 
Indeed,  a  patient's  trouble  is  often  imaginary,  exists 
in  the  mind  only ;  in  such  cases,  the  treatment  should 
be  wholly  mental,  i.e.  through  suggestion.  Of  course, 
the  best  physicians  know  these  facts  and  make  use 
of  them  in  their  practice,  but  preparation  for  this 
aspect  of  their  work  should  be  a  regular  part  of  their 
medical  education.  They  should  not  be  left  to  learn 
these  facts  from  their  practice  as  best  they  may,  any 
more  than  they  should  be  expected  to  learn  their 
physiology  and  anatomy  in  this  way. 

Law.  The  service  of  psychology  to  law  can  be  very 
great,  but  owing  to  the  necessary  conservatism  of 
the  courts,  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  they  will  make 
much  use  of  psychological  knowledge.  Perhaps  the 
greatest  service  will  be  in  determining  the  credibility 
of  evidence.  Psychology  can  now  give  the  general 
principles  in  this  matter.  Witnesses  go  on  the  stand 
and  swear  to  all  sorts  of  things  as  to  what  they  heard 
and  saw  and  did,  often  months  and  even  years  pre- 
viously. The  expert  clinical  psychologist  can  tell 
the  court  the  probability  of  such  evidence  being  true. 
Experiments  have  shown  that  there  is  a  large  per- 


Applied  Psychology  213 


centage  of  error  in  such  evidence.  The  additional  value 
that  comes  from  the  oath  has  been  measured.  The 
oath  increases  the  liability  of  truth  only  a  small  per- 
centage. 

Experiments  have  also  shown  that  one's  feeling  of 
certainty  is  no  guarantee  of  truth.  Sometimes  the 
point  we  feel  surest  about  is  the  one  farthest  from  the 
truth.  In  fact,  feeling  sure  of  a  thing  is  no  guarantee 
of  truth. 

In  a  particular  case  in  court,  the  psychologist  can 
determine  the  reliability  of  the  evidence  of  a  particular 
witness  and  enable  the  judge  and  the  jury  to  put  the 
proper  value  on  such  witness's  testimony.  For  ex- 
ample, a  witness  may  swear  to  a  certain  point  involv- 
ing the  estimation  of  time  and  distance.  The  psychol- 
ogist can  measure  the  witness's  accuracy  in  such  esti- 
mates, often  showing  that  what  the  witness  claims  to 
be  able  to  do  is  an  impossibility.  A  case  may  hinge  on 
whether  an  interval  of  time  was  ten  minutes  or  twelve 
minutes,  or  whether  a  distance  was  three  hundred  or 
four  hundred  feet.  A  witness  may  swear  positively 
to  one  or  both  of  these  points.  The  psychologist 
can  show  the  court  the  limitations  of  the  witness  in 
making  such  estimates. 

Psychology  can  be  of  service  in  the  examination 
of  the  criminal  himself.  Through  association  tests 
and  in  other  ways,  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  prisoner 
can  often  be  determined,  and  his  intellectual  status 
can  also  be  determined.  The  prisoner  may  be  insane, 
or  feeble-minded,  or  have  some  other  peculiar  mental 
disorder.  Such  matters  fall  within  the  realm  of 
psychology.  After  a  prisoner  has  been  found  guilty, 
the  court  should  have  the  advice  of  the  clinical  psy- 
chologist in  deciding  what  should  be  done  with  him. 


214        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

It  should  be  added  that  the  court  and  not  the  attor- 
neys should  make  use  of  the  psychologist.  Whenever 
a  psychologist  can  be  of  service  in  a  case  in  court, 
the  judge  should  summon  such  assistance,  just  as  he 
should  if  expert  chemical,  physical,  physiological,  or 
anatomical  knowledge  should  be  desired. 

A  knowledge  of  human  nature  can  be  of  much  ser- 
vice to  society  in  the  prevention  of  crime.  This  will 
come  about  from  a  better  knowledge  of  the  psycholog- 
ical principles  of  habit-formation  and  moral  training, 
through  a  better  knowledge  of  how  to  control  human 
nature.  A  large  percentage  of  all  crime,  perhaps  as 
much  as  forty  per  cent,  is  committed  by  feeble-minded 
people.  Now,  if  we  can  detect  these  people  early, 
and  give  them  the  simple  manual  education  which 
they  are  capable  of  receiving,  we  can  keep  them  out 
of  a  life  of  crime. 

Studies  of  criminals  in  reform  schools  show  that  the 
history  of  many  cases  is  as  follows :  The  person, 
being  of  low  mentality,  could  not  get  on  well  at  school 
and  therefore  came  to  dislike  school,  and  consequently 
became  a  truant.  Truancy  led  to  crime.  Crime  sent 
the  person  to  the  court,  and  the  court  sent  the  person 
to  the  state  reformatory. 

The  great  duty  of  the  state  is  the  prevention  of 
crime.  Usually  little  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  sav- 
ing a  mature  criminal.  We  must  save  the  children 
before  they  become  criminals,  save  them  by  proper 
treatment.  Society  owes  it  to  every  child  to  do  the 
right  thing  for  him,  the  right  thing,  whether  the  child 
is  an  idiot  or  a  genius.  Merely  from  the  standpoint 
of  economy,  it  would  be  an  immense  saving  to  the 
state  if  it  would  prevent  crime  by  the  proper  treatment 
of  every  child. 


Applied  Psychology  215 


Business.  The  contribution  of  psychology  in  this 
field,  so  far,  is  in  the  psychology  of  advertising  and 
salesmanship,  both  having  to  do  chiefly  with  the  sell- 
ing of  goods.  Students  of  the  psychology  of  advertis- 
ing have,  by  experiment,  determined  many  principles 
that  govern  people  when  reading  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines, principles  having  to  do  with  size  and  kind  of 
type,  arrangement  and  form,  the  wording  of  an  ad- 
vertisement, etc.  The  object  of  an  advertisement 
is  to  get  the  reader  interested  in  the  article  advertised. 
The  first  thing  is  to  get  him  to  read  the  advertisement. 
Here,  various  principles  of  attention  are  involved. 
The  next  thing  is  to  have  the  matter  of  the  advertise- 
ment of  such  a  nature  that  it  creates  interest  and  re- 
mains in  memory,  so  that  when  the  reader  buys  an 
article  of  that  type  he  buys  the  particular  kind  men- 
tioned in  the  advertisement. 

In  salesmanship,  many  subtle  psychological  prin- 
ciples are  involved.  The  problem  of  the  salesman  is 
to  get  the  attention  of  the  customer,  and  then  to  make 
him  want  to  buy  his  goods.  To  do  this  with  the  great- 
est success  demands  a  profound  knowledge  of  human 
nature.  Other  things  being  equal,  that  man  can 
most  influence  people  who  has  the  widest  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  people,  and  of  the  factors  that  affect 
this  nature.  The  successful  salesman  must  under- 
stand human  feelings  and  emotions,  especially  sym- 
pathy; also  the  laws  of  attention  and  memory,  and 
the  power  of  suggestion.  A  mastery  of  the  impor- 
tant principles  requires  years  of  study,  and  a  successful 
application  of  them  requires  just  as  many  years  of 
practice. 

The  last  paragraph  leads  us  to  a  consideration  of 
the  general  problem  of  influencing  men.     In  all  occu- 


216        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

pations  and  professions,  one  needs  to  know  how  to 
influence  other  men.  We  have  already  discussed 
the  matter  of  influencing  people  to  buy  goods.  People 
who  employ  labor  need  to  know  how  to  get  laborers 
to  do  more  and  better  work,  how  to  make  them  loyal 
and  happy.  The  minister  needs  to  know  how  to  in- 
duce the  members  of  his  congregation  to  do  right. 
The  statesman  needs  to  know  how  to  win  his  hearers 
and  convince  them  of  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  his 
cause.  Whatever  our  calling,  there  is  scarcely  a  day 
when  we  could  not  do  better  if  we  knew  more  fully 
how  to  influence  people. 

Industry.  The  service  of  psychology  here  is  four- 
fold :  (1)  Finding  what  men  are  fitted  for.  (2)  Find- 
ing what  kinds  of  abilities  are  demanded  by  the  vari- 
ous trades  and  occupations.  (3)  Helping  the  worker 
to  understand  the  psychological  aspects  of  his  work. 
(4)  Getting  the  best  work  out  of  the  laborer. 

Finding  what  men  are  fitted  for.  In  the  preceding 
chapter,  we  discussed  the  individual  variations  of 
men.  Some  people  are  better  fitted  physically  and 
mentally  for  certain  types  of  work  than  they  are 
for  other  types  of  work.  The  determination  of  what 
an  individual  is  fitted  for  and  what  he  is  not  fitted  for 
is  the  business  of  psychology.  In  some  cases,  the  ver- 
dict of  psychology  can  be  very  specific;  in  others, 
it  can  be  only  general.  Much  misery  and  unhappiness 
come  to  people  from  trying  to  do  what  they  are  not 
fitted  by  nature  to  do.  There  are  many  professions 
and  occupations  which  people  should  not  enter  unless 
they  possess  high  general  ability.  Now,  psychology 
is  able  to  measure  general  ability.  There  are  many 
other  occupations  and  professions  which  people  should 
not  enter  unless  they  possess  some  special  ability. 


Applied  Psychology  217 

Music,  art,  and  mechanics  may  be  mentioned  as 
examples  of  occupations  and  professions  demanding 
specific  kinds  of  ability.  In  industrial  work,  many 
aspects  demand  very  special  abilities,  as  quick  reac- 
tion, quick  perception,  fine  discrimination,  calmness 
and  self-control,  ingenuity,  quick  adaptation  to  new 
situations.  Psychology  can  aid  in  picking  out  the 
people  who  possess  the  required  abilities. 

The  different  abilities  demanded.  It  is  the  business 
of  psychology  to  make  a  careful  analysis  of  the  specific 
abilities  required  in  all  the  various  works  of  life.  There 
are  hundreds  of  occupations  and  often  much  differentia- 
tion of  work  within  an  occupation.  It  is  for  the  psychol- 
ogist of  the  future  to  make  this  analysis  and  to  classify 
the  occupations  with  reference  to  the  kinds  of  abilities 
demanded.  Of  course,  many  of  them  will  be  found  to 
require  the  same  kind  of  ability,  but  just  as  surely, 
many  will  be  found  to  require  very  special  abilities. 
It  is  a  great  social  waste  to  have  people  trying  to  fill 
such  positions  unless  they  possess  the  specific  abilities 
required. 

It  should  be  the  work  of  the  high  school  and  college 
to  explain  the  possibilities,  and  the  demands  in  the  way 
of  ability,  of  the  various  occupations  of  the  locality. 
By  possibilities  and  demands  are  meant  the  kinds  of 
abilities  required  and  the  rewards  that  can  be  expected, 
the  kind  of  life  which  the  different  fields  offer.  It  is 
the  further  duty  of  the  high  school  and  college  to 
find  out,  as  far  as  possible,  the  specific  abilities  of  the 
students.  With  this  knowledge  before  them,  the 
students  should  choose  their  careers,  and  then  make 
specific  preparation  for  them.  The  schools  ought  to 
work  in  close  cooperation  with  the  industries,  the  stu- 
dent working  for  a  part  of  the  day  in  school  and  a  part 


218        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

in  the  industries.  This  would  help  much  in  leading 
the  student  to  understand  the  industries  and  in  ascer- 
taining his  own  abilities  and  interests. 

The  psychological  aspects  of  one's  work.  All  occu- 
pations have  a  psychological  aspect.  They  involve 
some  trick  of  attention,  of  association,  of  memory. 
Certain  things  must  be  looked  for,  certain  habits  must 
be  formed,  certain  movements  must  be  automatized. 
Workmen  should  be  helped  to  master  these  psycho- 
logical problems,  to  find  the  most  convenient  ways  of 
doing  their  work.  Workmen  often  do  their  work  in 
the  most  uneconomical  ways,  having  learned  their 
methods  through  imitation,  and  never  inquiring 
whether  there  is  a  more  economical  way. 

Securing  efficiency.  Securing  efficiency  is  a  matter 
of  influencing  men,  a  matter  which  we  have  already 
discussed.  Securing  efficiency  is  quite  a  different 
matter  from  that  treated  in  the  preceding  paragraph. 
A  workman  may  have  a  complete  knowledge  of  his 
work  and  be  skilled  in  its  performance,  and  still  be  a 
poor  workman,  because  he  does  not  have  the  right 
attitude  toward  his  employer  or  toward  his  work. 
The  employer  must  therefore  meet  the  problem  of 
making  his  men  like  their  work  and  be  loyal  to  their 
employer.  The  laborer  must  be  happy  and  contented 
if  he  is  to  do  good  work.  Moreover,  there  is  no  use 
in  working,  or  in  living  either,  if  one  cannot  be  happy 
and  contented. 

We  have  briefly  indicated  the  possibilities  of  psy- 
chology in  the  various  occupations  and  professions. 
There  is  a  further  application  that  has  no  reference 
to  the  practical  needs  of  life,  but  to  enjoyment.  A 
psychological  knowledge  of  human  nature  adds  a 
new  interest  to  all  our  social  experience.     The  ability 


Applied  Psychology  219 

•to  understand  the  actions  and  feelings  of  men  puts 
new  meaning  into  the  world.  The  ability  to  under- 
stand oneself,  to  analyze  one's  actions,  motives,  feel- 
ings, and  thoughts,  makes  life  more  worth  living.  A 
knowledge  of  the  sensations  and  sense  organs  adds 
much  pleasure  to  life  in  addition  to  its  having  great 
practical  value.  Briefly,  a  psychological  knowledge 
of  human  nature  adds  much  to  the  richness  of  life. 
It  gives  one  the  analytical  attitude.  Experiences 
that  to  others  are  wholes,  to  the  psychologist  fall  apart 
into  their  elements.  Such  knowledge  leads  us  to 
analyze  and  see  clearly  what  otherwise  we  do  not  under- 
stand and  see  only  darkly  or  not  at  all.  Literature  and 
art,  and  all  other  creations  and  products  of  man  take  on 
a  wholly  new  interest  to  the  psychologist. 

Summary.  Psychology  is  of  service  to  education  in  ascertain- 
ing the  nature  of  the  child  and  the  laws  of  learning;  to  law,  in 
determining  the  reliability  of  evidence  and  in  the  prevention  of 
crime;  to  medicine,  in  the  work  of  diagnosis  and  treatment;  to 
business,  in  advertising  and  salesmanship ;  to  the  industries,  in 
finding  the  man  for  the  place  and  the  place  for  the  man ;  to  every- 
body, in  giving  a  keener  insight  into,  and  understanding  of,  human 
nature. 

CLASS   EXERCISES 

1.  Visit  a  court  room  when  a  trial  is  in  progress.  Note  wherein 
psychology  could  be  of  service  to  the  jury,  to  the  judge,  and  to 
the  attorneys. 

2.  To  test  the  reliability  of  evidence,  proceed  as  follows :  Take 
a  large  picture,  preferably  one  in  color  and  having  many  details ; 
hold  it  before  the  class  in  a  good  light  where  all  can  see  it.  Let 
them  look  at  it  for  ten  or  fifteen  seconds,  the  time  depending  on 
the  complexity  of  the  picture.  The  students  should  then  write 
down  what  they  saw  in  the  picture,  underscoring  all  the  points 
to  which  they  would  be  willing  to  make  oath.  Then  the  students 
should  answer  a  list  of  questions  prepared  by  the  teacher,  on 


220        The  Science  of  Human  Nature 

various  points  in  the  picture.  Some  of  these  questions  should 
be  suggestive,  such  as,  "What  color  is  the  dog?"  supposing  no 
dog  to  be  in  the  picture.  The  papers  giving  the  first  written 
description  should  be  graded  on  the  number  of  items  reported 
and  on  their  accuracy.  The  answers  to  the  questions  should 
be  graded  on  their  accuracy.  How  do  girls  compare  with  boys 
in  the  various  aspects  of  the  report?  What  is  the  accuracy  of 
the  underlined  points? 

3.  Let  the  teacher,  with  the  help  of  two  or  three  students, 
perform  before  the  class  some  act  or  series  of  acts,  with  some  con- 
versation, and  then  have  the  students  who  have  witnessed  the 
performance  write  an  account  of  it,  as  in  No.  2. 

4.  Divide  the  class  into  two  groups.  Select  one  person  from 
each  to  look  at  a  picture  as  in  No.  1.  These  two  people  are  then 
to  write  a  complete  account  of  the  picture.  This  account  is 
then  read  to  another  person  in  the  same  group,  who  then  writes 
from  memory  his  account  and  reads  to  another.  This  is  to  be 
continued  till  all  have  heard  an  account  and  written  their  own. 
You  will  then  have  two  series  of  accounts  of  the  same  picture 
proceeding  from  two  sources.  It  will  be  well  for  the  two  who  look 
at  the  picture  to  be  of  very  different  types,  let  us  say,  one  imagina- 
tive, the  other  matter-of-fact. 

Do  all  the  papers  of  one  series  have  some  characteristics  that 
enable  you  to  determine  from  which  group  they  come?  What 
conclusions  and  inferences  do  you  draw  from  the  experiment? 

5.  Does  the  feeling  of  certainty  make  a  thing  true?  See  how 
many  cases  you  can  find  in  a  week,  of  persons  feeling  sure  a  state- 
ment is  true,  when  it  is  really  false. 

6.  In  the  following  way,  try  to  find  out  something  which  a 
person  is  trying  to  conceal.  Prepare  a  list  of  words,  inserting 
now  and  then  words  which  have  some  reference  to  the  vital  point. 
Read  the  words  one  by  one  to  the  person  and  have  him  speak  the 
first  word  suggested  by  those  read.  Note  the  time  taken  for 
the  responses.  A  longer  reaction  time  usually  follows  the  incrim- 
inating words,  and  the  subject  is  thrown  into  a  visible  confusion. 

7.  Talk  to  successful  physicians  and  find  out  what  use  they 
make  of  suggestion  and  other  psychological  principles. 

8.  Spend  several  hours  visiting  different  grades  below  the  high 
school.  In  how  many  ways  could  the  teachers  improve  their 
work  by  following  psychological  principles  ? 


Applied  Psychology  221 

9.  Could  the  qualities  of  a  good  teacher  —  native  and  acquired 
—  be  measured  by  tests  and  experiments? 

10.  Visit  factories  where  men  do  skillful  work  and  try  to  learn 
by  observation  what  types  of  mind  and  body  are  required  by  the 
different  kinds  of  work. 

11.  Does  the  occupation  which  you  have  chosen  for  life  de- 
mand any  specific  abilities?  If  so,  do  you  possess  them  in  a 
high  degree? 

12.  Could  parents  better  train  their  children  if  they  made  use 
of  psychological  principles? 

13.  In  how  many  ways  will  the  facts  learned  in  this  course  be 
of  economic  use  to  you  in  your  life?  In  what  ways  will  they 
make  life  more  pleasurable? 

14.  Make  a  complete  outline  of  this  chapter. 

REFERENCES   FOR   CLASS    READING 

Munsterberg:      Psychology,    General     and    Applied,     Chapter 

XXVII-XXXIII. 
Munsterberg  :   The  Psychology  of  Industrial  Efficiency. 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  REFERENCES 
FOR  CLASS  READING 

Colvin,  S.  S.,  and  Bagley,  W.  C. :  Human  Behavior,  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  1913. 

Davenport,  C.  B. :  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics.  Henry  Holt 
&  Company,  1911. 

Dewey,  J. :  How  We  Think.     D.  C.  Heath  &  Company,  1910. 

Kellicott,  W.  E. :  The  Social  Direction  of  Human  Evolution. 
D.  Appleton  &  Company,  1911. 

Kirkpatrick,  E.  A. :  The  Fundamentals  of  Child  Study.  The 
Macmillan  Company,  1912. 

Munsterberg,  H. :  Psychology,  General  and  Applied.  D.  Ap- 
pleton &  Company,  1914. 

Munsterberg,  H. :  The  Psychology  of  Industrial  Efficiency. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  1913. 

Pillsbury,  W.  B. :  Essentials  of  Psychology.  The  Macmillan 
Company,  1916. 

Pyle,  W.  H. :  Outlines  of  Educational  Psychology.  Warwick  and 
York,  1912. 

Pyle,  W.  H. :  The  Examination  of  School  Children.  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  1913. 

Rowe,  S.  H. :  Habit-Formation  and  the  Science  of  Teaching. 
Longmans,  Green,  &  Company,  1911. 

Titchener,  E.  B. :  A  Beginner's  Psychology.  The  Macmillan 
Company,  1916. 


222 


GLOSSARY 

Most  of  the  terms  given  below  are  explained  in  the  text,  but 
it  is  hoped  that  this  alphabetical  list  with  brief  definitions  will 
prove  helpful.  It  is  a  difficult  task  to  make  the  definitions  scien- 
tific and  at  the  same  time  brief,  simple,  and  clear. 

Abnormal.  Having  mental  or  physical  characteristics  widely 
different  from  those  commonly  found  in  ordinary  people. 

Acquired  nature.  Those  aspects  of  habit,  skill,  knowledge,  ideas, 
and  ideals  that  come  from  experience  and  are  due  to  experi- 
ence. 

Action.  Muscular  contractions  usually  producing  motion  of 
the  body  or  of  some  part  of  the  body. 

Adaptation.     Adjustment  to  one's  surroundings. 

Adaptive.  Readily  changing  one's  responses  and  acquiring  such 
new  responses  as  enable  one  to  meet  successfully  new  situa- 
tions ;  also  having  tendencies  or  characteristics  which  enable 
one  to  be  readily  adjustable. 

After-images.  Images  that  follow  immediately  after  stimulation 
of  a  sense  organ,  and  resulting  from  this  stimulation. 

Association.  Binding  together  ideas  through  experiencing  them 
together. 

Attention.     Relative  clearness  of  perceptions  and  ideas. 

Attitude.  The  tendency  toward  a  particular  type  of  response  in 
action  or  a  particular  idea  or  association  in  thought. 

Bond.  The  connection  established  in  the  nervous  system  which 
makes  a  certain  response  follow  a  certain  stimulus  or  a  cer- 
tain idea  follow  another  idea  or  perception. 

Capacity.     The  possibility  of  learning,  achieving,  etc. 

Color  blindness.  Inability  to  experience  certain  colors,  usually 
red  and  green. 

Complementary  color.  Complementary  colors  are  those  which, 
mixed  in  the  right  proportion,  produce  gray. 

Congenital.     Inborn. 

223 


224  Glossary 

Connection.  The  nerve-path  through  which  a  stimulus  produces 
a  response  or  through  which  one  idea  produces  or  evokes 
another. 

Conscious.  Having  consciousness,  or  accompanying  conscious- 
ness or  producing  consciousness. 

Consciousness.     The    mental    states  —  perceptions,    ideas,    feel- 
ings —  which  one  has  at  any  moment. 
Low  level  of  consciousness.     Conscious  processes  not  so  clear  as 

others  existing  at  the  same  time. 
High  level  of  consciousness.     Conscious  processes  that  are  clear 
as  compared  to  others  existing  at  the  same  time. 

Contrast.  The  enhancing  or  strengthening  of  a  sensation  by  an- 
other of  opposite  quality. 

Correlation.  The  relation  that  exists  between  two  functions, 
characteristics,  or  attributes  that  enables  us,  finding  one, 
to  predict  the  presence  of  the  other. 

Development.  The  appearance,  or  growth,  or  strengthening  of  a 
characteristic. 

Emotion.  The  pleasure-pain  aspect  of  experience  plus  sensations 
from  characteristic  bodily  reactions. 

Environment.  The  objects  and  forces  about  us  which  affect  us 
through  our  senses. 

Environmental  instincts.  Instincts  which  have  originated,  at  least 
in  part,  from  the  periodic  changes  in  man's  environment. 

Eugenics.  The  science  of  race  improvement  through  selective 
breeding  or  proper  marriages  or  in  some  cases  through  the 
prevention  of  marriage. 

Experience.  What  we  learn  of  the  world  through  sensation  and 
perception. 

Fatigue.  Inability  to  work  produced  by  work  and  which  only 
rest  will  cure. 

Feeble-minded.  Having  important  mental  traits  only  poorly  de- 
veloped or  not  at  all. 

Feeling.  The  pleasure-pain  aspect  of  experience  or  of  ideational 
states. 

Function.  The  use  of  a  thing  or  process,  also  any  mental  process 
or  combination  of  processes  considered  as  a  unit. 

Genetic.     Having  reference  to  origin  and  development. 

Habits.  Definite  responses  to  definite  stimuli  depending  upon 
bonds  established  by  use  after  birth. 


Glossary  225 

Heredity.     Transmission   of   characteristics   from   parent   to   off- 
spring. 
Human  nature.     The   characteristics   and   tendencies   which  we 

have  as  human  beings,  with  particular  reference  to  mind  and 

action. 
Ideals.     Definite  tendencies  to  act  in  definite  ways.     Ideas  of 

definite  types  of  action  with  tendency  toward  the  actions ; 

ideas  of  definite  conditions,  forms,  and  states  together  with 

a  desire  to  experience  or  possess  them. 
Ideas.     Revived  perceptions. 
Images.     Revived  sensations,  simpler  than  ideas. 
Imitation.     Acting  as  we  see  others  act. 
Impulse.     Tendency  to  action. 

Individualistic   instincts.     Those   instincts   which   more   immedi- 
ately serve  individual  survival. 
Individual    differences.     The    mental    and    physical    differences 

between  people. 
Inherited  nature.     Those  aspects  of  one's  nature   due  directly 

to  heredity. 
Instincts.     Definite  responses  produced  by  definite  stimuli  through 

hereditary  connections  in  the  nervous  system. 
Intellectual    habits.     Definite    fixed    connections    between    ideas; 

definite  ways  of  meeting  typical  thought  situations. 
Intensity.     The  amount  or  strength  of  a  sensation  or  image,  how 

far  it  is  from  nothing. 
Interest.     The  aspect  given  to  experience  or  thinking  by  attention 

and  pleasure. 
Learning.     Establishing  new  bonds  or  connections  in  the  nervous 

system ;   acquiring  habits ;   gaining  knowledge. 
Memory.     The  retention  of  experience;   retained  and  reproduced 

experience. 
Mental  set.     Mental  attitude  or  disposition. 
Mind.     The  sum  total  of  one's  conscious  states  from  birth  to 

death. 
Nerve-path.     The  route  traversed  by  a  nerve-stimulus  or  excitation. 
Original  nature.     All  those  aspects  of  mind  and  body  directly 

inherited. 
Perceive.     To  be  aware  of  a  thing  through  sensation. 
Perception.     Awareness  of  a  thing  through  sensation  or  a  fusion 

of  sensations. 


226  Glossary 

Plasticity.  Modifiability,  making  easy  the  formation  of  new 
bonds  or  nerve-connections. 

Presupposition.  A  theory  or  hypothesis  on  which  an  argument 
or  a  system  of  arguments  or  principles  is  based. 

Primary.  First,  original,  elementary,  perceptive  experience  as 
distinguished  from  ideational  experience. 

Reaction.  The  action  immediately  following  a  stimulus  and  pro- 
duced by  it. 

Reasoning.    Thinking  to  a  purpose ;  trying  to  meet  a  new  situation. 

Reflex.  A  very  simple  act  brought  about  by  a  stimulus  through 
an  hereditary  nerve-path. 

Response.     The  act  following  a  stimulus  and  produced  by  it. 

Retention.  Memory;  modification  of  the  nervous  system  mak- 
ing possible  the  revival  of  experience. 

Science.     Knowledge  classified  and  systematized. 

Sensation.  Primary  experience;  consciousness  directly  due  to 
the  stimulation  of  a  sense  organ. 

Sense.  To  sense  is  to  have  sensation,  to  perceive.  A  sense  is  a 
sense  organ  or  the  ability  to  have  sensation  through  a  sense 
organ. 

Sense  organ.  A  modified  nerve-end  with  accompanying  apparatus 
or  mechanism  making  possible  a  certain  form  of  stimulation. 

Sensitive.  Capable  of  giving  rise  to  sensation,  or  transmitting 
a  nerve-current. 

Sensitivity.     Property  of,  or  capacity  for  being  sensitive. 

Sensory.     Relating  to  a  sense  organ  or  to  sensation. 

Situation.     The  total  environmental  influences  of  any  one  moment. 

Socialistic  instincts.  The  instincts  related  more  directly  to  the 
survival  of  a  social  group. 

Stimulation.  The  setting  up  of  a  nerve  process  in  a  sense  organ 
or  in  a  nerve  tract. 

Stimulus.     That  which  produces  stimulation. 

Subnormal.  Having  characteristics  considerably  below  the 
normal. 

Tendency.  Probability  of  a  nerve-current  taking  a  certain  direc- 
tion due  to  nerve-organization. 

Thinking.     The  passing  of  images  and  ideas. 

Thought.     Thinking ;   an  idea  or  group  of  ideas. 

Training.     Establishing  nerve  connection  or  bonds. 

Vividness.     Clearness  of  sensations,  perceptions,  images,  and  ideas. 


INDEX 


Abilities,  specialized,  179 
Ability,  unusual,  206 
Adaptation  of  vision,  41 
After-images,  visual,  40 
Ancestors,  22  f . 
Anger,  58 

Appearance  of  instincts,  54 
Applied  psychology,  8-9,  210  ff. 
Association  of  ideas,  152 
Astigmatism,  44 
Attention,  80  ff. ;   and  will,  82. 
Attitude,  157 

Behavior,  7 

Bodily  conditions,  76 

Brain,  7 

Brightness,  sensation  of,  38 

Business,  215 

Causality,  18,  21 
Centrally  initiated  action,  51 
Child,  nature  of,  11 
Cold,  sense  of,  42 
Collecting  instinct,  62 
College,  function  of,  217 
Color  blindness,  45 
Color  mixture,  39 
Color,  sensation  of,  38 
Completion  test,  198 
Concentrated  practice,  102 
Consciousness,  7 
Conservatism,  109 
Costly  Temper  test,  186 
Cramming,  141 
Criminal,  the,  213  f. 
Curriculum,  145 

Darwin,  89 

Defects  of  sense  organs,  43 


Development,     individual,     24  ff. ; 

racial,  18-21 ;   significance  of  and 

causality,  21-24. 
Direct  method,  112 
Dizziness,    organs    that    give     us 

sense  of,  42. 
Dramatization,  67 
Drill  in  school  subjects,  110-112. 
Dynamic,  world  as,  20 

Economical  practice,  101  ff. 

Education,  210;  aim  of,  10;  pre- 
paratory, 167  ;    science  of,  9  ff. 

Educational  inferences,  143 

Educational  psychology,  9  ff. 

Efficiency,  98,  108 

Emotions,  74  ff. 

Environment,  31 

Environmental  instincts,  61 

Envy,  58 

Evolution,  19  ff. 

Exceptions,  101,  114 

Excursions,  61 

Experience,  8;  organization  of, 
169. 

Experiment,  13  ff. 

Eye,  the,  37 

Eye  defects,  43  ff. 

Eyestrain,  20 

Farsightedness,  44 
Fatigue,  101 
Fear,  56 

Feeble-mindedness,  29 
Feeling,  73  ff. 
Fighting  instincts,  58 
Formal  drill,  III,  112 
Free  association  frequency  surface, 
178 

227 


228 


Index 


Free  association  test,  193 
Frequency  of  experience,  156 

Gang  instinct,  60 

Genetic  view  of  childhood,  24 

Genius,  31 

Habit,  87  ff;    and  nerve  path,  91; 

how  formed,  98  ff . ;    importance 

in    life,     107;      intellectual,    89; 

moral,    90;      of    thought,     169; 

results  of ,  94;   specific,  116 
Hearing,  41 ;    defects  of,  45 
Heredity,  24  ff. 
Heredity  vs.  Environment,  31 
Heritage,  social,  23 
High     school     and     fourth     grade 

abilities  compared,  203 
High  school,  function  of,  217 
Home  and  moral  training,   118 

Idea,  52 

Ideas,  124 

Imitation,  64  ff. 

Imitation  in  ideals,  67 

Incidental  drill,  111 

Individual  development,  24  ff. 

Individual  differences,  176  ff. 

Individualistic  instincts,  56 

Industry,  216 

Influencing  men,  215 

Inheritance,  22 

Inherited  tendencies,  50  ff. 

Initiative,  113 

Instincts,    52  ff . ;     classification   of, 

55  ;    significance  of,  55 
Interest,  84 
Intervals  between  practice,  102 

Jealousy,  58 

Joints,  sense  organs  in,  42 

Jost's  law,  142 

Language  and  thinking,  170  ff. 

Language  study,  144 

Latin,  116 

Law,     service    of    psychology    to, 

212 
Learning  and  remembering,  138 
Learning  by  wholes,  141 


Life  occupations,  205 
Logical  memory,  184  ff. 

Meaning,  163  ff. 

Medicine,  211 

Memories,  kinds  of,  132 

Memory,  124  ff. ;  and  age  and  sex, 
127  ;  and  habit,  146  ;  and  school 
standing,  135;  and  thinking, 
134;  factors  of,  128  ff. ;  good, 
dangers  resulting  from,  137; 
kinds  of,  132 

Mendelian  principle,  26 

Mental  development,  19 

Mental  differences,  178;  detection 
of,  ISO;    importance  of,  201  ff. 

Mental  functions  developed,  182 

Mental  set,  157 

Mental  tests,  183  ff. 

Mind  and  body,  34  ff. 

Mood,  78 

Moral  training,  117  ff. 

Motive,  77 

Muscular  speed,  14 

Museum,  school,  62  ff. 

Musical  ability,  179 

Nearsightedness,  44 

Needs  of  child,  77 

Nerve  tendency,  92 

Norms  in  mental  tests,  184  ff. 

Occupations,  205 
Opposites  test,  195  ff. 
Organization  of  experience,  163  ff. 

Pain  sense,  42 

Parents,    and    habit-formation    of 

children,  104  ff.,  119 
Perception,  124 

Physiological  basis  of  memory,  126 
Piano  playing,  51,  97 
Pitch,  41 
Plasticity,  93 
Play,  68 

Pleasure  and  habit,  101 
Pleasure,  higher  forms  of,  80 
Practice,  99,  113 
Primary  experience,  154 
Psychology  and  culture,  218 
Psychology  defined,  5 ;   method  of, 

13 ;   problems  of,  8 


Index 


229 


Race,  development  of,  18  ff. ;    im- 
provement of,  30 
Ranking  students,  15 
Reasoning,  159  ;    training  in,  168 
Recalling  forgotten  names,  146 
Recency  of  experience,  155 
Regeneration,  23 
Repetition,  99 
Respect  for  authority,  77 
Resemblance,  25 
Retina,  the,  37  f. 
Revived  experience,  125 
Rigidity,  108 
Rote  memory,  189 
Rules  for  habit-formation,  113 

Salesmanship,  215 

School,  and  habit,  108 ;    and  moral 

training,  119  f. 
Schoolhouse,     community     center, 

60  f. 
Science,  1 
Scientific  law,  3 
Scientist,  1  ff. 
Securing  efficiency,  218 
Selecting  habits,  109 
Sense  organs,  affects  of  stimulating, 

6,  7  ;    knowledge  through,  35 
Sleight's  experiment,  140 
Smell,  42 
Social  life  of  children,  60 


Social  tendencies,  59 
Stimulation,  6 
Stimulus  and  response,  50 
Study,  learning  how  to,  132 
Subnormal  children,  206 
Substitution  test,  192 

Taste,  42 

Teacher,  function  of  in  memory 
work,  142  ;  function  of  in  habit- 
formation,  103 

Teaching  too  abstract,  129 

Temperament,  78 

Tendons,  sense  organs  in,  42 

Thinking,  152  ff.,  159 

Touch,  42 

Transfer  of  training,  114  ff.,  140 

Truancies,  61 

Typewriting,  51,  94  ff. 

Vision,  37  ;   importance  of,  45 
Visual  contrast,  39 
Vividness    and   intensity   of   expe- 
rience, 156 


Wandering,  61 
Warmth,  sense  of,  42 
Weight,      diagram      showing 

quency  surface  of,  177 
Word-building  test,  197 
Work  and  psychology,  218 


fre- 


17 


X 


fc>/^ 


■>/ 


°<C  S    s  a*  n — - 


tf-CALIFOfyv 


clOSANCflfX* 


foHAINMWV 
aOSANCFl£j> 


33 


MNIHtf^ 


IBRARYQr. 

II 

aOSANGflfj>  ^OF-CAllFORto       ^OF-CAllFORfo 

£rf  Iv©i  §v©i 


o 


University  ol  Calilornia.  Los  Angeles 


1 


L  007  230  400  9 


VtKi/^ 


«oi^ 


<P°^ 


.vlOSAN 


^WEUNIVER 


^M-UBRARYQc,       ^UIBRARY-0/ 

south™  regional  library  facility 

vso 

IVER 

raan#      y^AHvaan#       ^riiaoNvso 


AA    000  723  023 


IFOff^ 


RI! 

lain*1 


ll«<e 


"*■  so 


'4  UJlii  JUI 


^jdOS  ANCf  l£j> 


^UIBRAR* 


^0JI1V3J 


^Aavaan- 


VIRV/ 


VERS//, 


^UK-ANKUfo 


^•UBRARYCc.       ^tUBRARY^ 


^OFCAllFOfy*       ^OF-CAllFOfyv 


i.       to 
5      £ 


& 


^WtUNIVtR 


ce 


^ 


%13DNYS0 


AWEUNIVEfl 


l^f 


